Those Precious Days Off
by Mirror-of-Roses
Summary: Beacon gives the students 30 days off. This is how team RWBY and JNPR spend those days. Incomplete, but leaving it as it is.
1. April Fools

Beacon only gave their students 30 days off every year. 2 weeks during summer, 8 days in the winter, 6 days during spring and 2 days during autumn. Today was the first day off in the spring, April 1st. Nobody knew why it had to be on April Fools' Day, but they were grateful for a break, no matter how many pranks were played.

Team RWBY and Team JNPR had decided to spend the day together. After all, who wouldn't want to spend a day off with their friends? They always did this during their breaks.

"So, what do you want to do today?" Yang asked at breakfast, her mouth full of pancakes as she spoke, earning a disapproving glare from Weiss which she ignored.

"Well, it's April Fools' Day, right?" Jaune said, a thoughtful frown forming on his face. "Why don't we play some pranks?"

"Ooh! That's a great idea!" Nora, who had been staring at the pancakes Yang had been consuming, clapped her hands, her trademark grin now in full view. "We could play pranks on each other!"

"How about one team pranks the other?" Pyrrha suggested.

"Yeah, let's do it!" Ruby fistpumped.

"Oh no, absolutely not," Weiss crossed her arms.

"Why not?" Yang questioned. "It'll be fun!"

"Because it's childish!" Weiss said, stabbing her sausage with her fork and taking a bite.

"C'mon, Weiss!" Ruby elbowed Weiss's side. "What's wrong with being childish every now and then?"

Weiss swallowed her food. "We are Hunters and Huntresses in training! We have no time for such things!"

"We have time now," Blake said flatly, eating her scrambled eggs.

"You're taking THEIR side?" Weiss said in disbelief, staring at the most stoic and logical member of their team. Blake nodded, not even sharing a glance at the heiress, who was now rubbing her temples, eyes shut in disapproval.

"Okay then!" Pyrrha said. "We can start the pranks after breakfast."

"Yes!" Ruby and Nora high-fived.

* * *

"Okay girls!" Yang plopped onto her bunk. "How do we prank Team JNPR?"

"Hmm…" Ruby thought deeply, her face scrunched up in concentration before her eyes widened. "Oh! How about- wait no, that wouldn't work…"

"Um…" Blake's eyebrows furrowed, but she couldn't think of anything either.

"Well, since we can't think of anything, how about we just call it off?" Weiss said, almost hopefully.

"No! We can't just call it off!" Ruby exclaimed. "We need to come up with the perfect idea!"

"She's right, Weiss. You need to be more patient," Blake agreed, nodding.

"Fine," Weiss grumbled, her arms now crossed.

* * *

"So, how do we prank Team RWBY?" Pyrrha mused.

"How about we steal some of Weiss's Dust?" Nora suggested.

"No, no, no! We can't do that!" Jaune panicked. "When she finds out it's us, she's going to kill us!"

"Hold on! I wasn't finished!" Nora grinned, to the displeasure of Ren. No matter what happened, that grin always got them in trouble somehow...

"I was going to say…"

* * *

"You still haven't thought of anything?" Weiss complained.

"Nope. Why don't we just go for a walk?" Ruby suggested. "Maybe we can get ideas that way."

"What do you mean?" Blake asked.

"Sometimes you get the best ideas in the weirdest ways or places," Ruby explained.

"Okay, let's go!" Without waiting for their responses, Yang opened the door and dragged her whole team out.

* * *

Magenta eyes looked through a crack in Team JNPR's door. Ruby, Weiss, Blake and Yang were walking out of their room and down the hall. A head peeked out of Team JNPR's room and watched the girls turn the corner.

"Wow, that was convenient..." Jaune muttered.

Go time.

Ren silently made his way over to the girls' dorm, thanking his lucky stars that Ruby left the door ajar. He stepped inside and searched for a case of Dust that could just be sitting around.

There was no Dust in plain sight, so he looked in different places. He noticed a book titled 'Ninjas of Love', the cover making him raise an eyebrow. Usually, he'd leave it alone, but Ren was curious...and he may or may not have an interest in anything ninja related. So, he picked it up and started reading the middle of the book.

Needless to say, Ren was the colour of a tomato after reading only a paragraph. He put the book back on Blake's bed, his eyes locked on to its cover as he struggled not to imagine the scenes he had just witnessed.

"I won't judge, but...What the heck does she read?" Ren said to himself.

Ren went back to looking for the Dust, which he later found under Weiss's bed. 'Of course,' Ren thought. 'Where else would it be?'

He opened the case and took out the vials with red Dust in them. He closed the case, put it back and retreated with the red Dust.

"Nice job, Ren," Pyrrha smiled, taking the Dust out of Ren's hands. "That was fast."

"No problem," Ren shrugged, sitting on his bed, trying to hide what remained of his blush from earlier.

"Now all we have to do is set up!" Nora said excitedly. "This'll be so much fun!"

"I'm not sure about this…" Jaune said nervously, scratching the back of his neck.

"Aw, don't worry Jaune-y boy!" Nora slapped a hand on his shoulder, causing him to lose some balance. "It's only a prank! Weiss can take a joke, right?"

Nora was the only one smiling. Everyone else was now suddenly worried.

* * *

"So that's the prank, Ruby?" Yang clarified.

"Yep! We just have to wait until dinner!" Ruby nodded.

"I have to say, I think it's a good idea," Blake said with a small smile. "What about you, Weiss?"

"I guess it's okay," Weiss opened the door to their dorm.

After Weiss stepped inside she tripped on a trip wire.

"Ow…" Weiss got up, her hand pressing a small button in the process.

"Was that seriously their prank?" Yang laughed heartily. "That was all they could come up with?"

They didn't notice a bucket tipping over above them. Red Dust spilled on the heads of Blake, Weiss and Ruby. It caused their hair to catch fire.

"AHHHHH!" Blake and Ruby ran into the bathroom and into the shower. Blake turned the water to it's coldest setting and ice-cold water rained down on them, putting out the fire. Not too much of their hair burnt off.

Weiss, on the other hand, was screaming like a banshee.

"GAH! Get it off getitoffgetitoff!"

Yang had to push Weiss into the shower with Blake and Ruby to put the fire out. She laughed at them.

"Ahaha! Oh man! Woo!" Yang pointed at them. "Guys, guys. Okay, you gotta step out. I'm sweaty and haven't washed up in days."

"That was not cool," Weiss grumbled as they stepped out of the bathroom.

"Well, technically it was…" Ruby joked. "The water was cold…"

So was the look the shivering Weiss gave her. Well, they were all shivering.

A few seconds after Yang stepped in the shower, there was a blood-curdling shriek.

"THIS IS WAR!" Yang burst out of the bathroom, wearing her short shorts and low-cut crop top, soaking wet except for her hair. It was on fire. That's why she was carrying a toilet plunger and charging at the door leading to the hallway.

"THIS IS SPARTA!" Yang kicked down Team JNPR's door.

"…This can't be good," Weiss looked out of their door as Yang stormed into Team JNPR's dorm.

"Who put red Dust in my shampoo…?" Yang said darkly, raising the toilet plunger.

"…He did it," Nora said as she, Ren and Pyrrha pointed to Jaune. Yang turned to him.

"Stop! Don't hurt me! You're scaring me!" Jaune stared at Yang's red eyes in fear.

"Yang, stop it!" Ruby ran into the room, grabbing Yang's wrist. "It's not worth it!"

Yang's eyes went back to normal. "Fine. I'll get you for this, Jaune!" by now the small fire in her hair was gone, and she and Ruby walked away.

"Weiss, we three are going to get some starch," Yang said, dropping the plunger as they entered their dorm. "Blake, stay behind. Make sure Team JNPR doesn't come in here."

"Sure," Blake said. "But shouldn't you put more clothes on and dry off?"

"Yeah, I'll get on it."

* * *

It was dinner time, 6:00 pm. Team RWBY had set up their prank while Team JNPR had gone for dinner, so they were late.

"Heya guys!" Nora waved them over.

"What took you so long?" Pyrrha asked as the girls sat down with their food.

"You're not going to kill me are you?" Jaune asked Yang, covering his face with his hands.

"No, I'm not all that mad anymore," Yang laughed a little. "I thought it was a pretty good prank. Why?"

"Jaune was expecting Weiss to take it to heart, not you," Pyrrha said, laughing a bit too.

"What? Why me?" Weiss looked offended.

Pyrrha's expression was unreadable. "Uh… no reason…"

"Hold on," Weiss pieced it together. "You stole my Dust, didn't you?"

Team JNPR was silent.

"You did, didn't you?!" Weiss exclaimed in anger, slamming her hands on the table. "Who did it?"

"I did," Ren said.

"You were snooping around in our room?" Weiss blinked.

'OhGoddammit' Blake thought, her face visibly paling. 'He didn't find it, did he?'

"Blake? Are you okay?" Ruby asked. "You look paler than usual."

"Yeah, I-I'm fine," Blake looked away, trying to hide the blush on her face. When she glanced back at the group, Ren gave her a knowing smile, then an assuring nod. 'Your secret's safe with me,' it communicated.

"So, have you thought of a prank yet?" Jaune asked Team RWBY.

"Of course we have!" Ruby grinned. "It's better than yours!"

"Sure it is," Pyrrha joked, though her smile showed that she was curious to see what RWBY had in store for them.

"Nothing is funnier than hearing you panicking over your hair!" Nora stuck her tongue out. Ruby did the same back to her.

"We'll see," Yang playfully crossed her arms.

* * *

The students at Beacon were getting ready for bed, and some were already asleep. Not Team JNPR though. After all, it was hard to sleep when all of your pajamas were covered with food.

Pyrrha waddled over to Team RWBY's dorm, clenched her fist and swung her body back and forth to knock. Blake opened the door.

"Yes?" Blake said with the straightest face she could muster.

"You know exactly why I'm here," Pyrrha said, giving Blake a small glare. "You starched our clothes!"

It was true, Team RWBY starched their pajamas stiff.

"Is that Pyrrha?" Weiss appeared beside Blake. The heiress started laughing.

"It's not funny," Pyrrha glared at her.

"Yeah! It's not funny!" Nora sumo-stomped her way over. The ridiculous walk managed to get a snort out of Weiss.

Ruby and Yang were quick to join their partners, and after seeing JNPR's reactions, they doubled over laughing.

"How do you get this stuff out?" Jaune waddled over, his arms stiffer than boards as they hung ridiculously out to his sides, his onesie pajamas whiter than a cloud.

"Um…" Blake smiled, succeeding in containing her laughter. "This'll take a while… but here's a book on it!" She dropped a thin book on the floor and closed the door. Lots of laughter were heard from their dorm.

'Great…' Pyrrha thought, trying to bend over to get the book. 'She did that on purpose.'

"Come on!" Nora put her foot on the book, sliding it over to their door. "Let's get this stuff out!"


	2. April 18th

Team RWBY and JNPR were spending the next 4 days together, and they were all happy about it. During breakfast, they decided that they would be camping in the Emerald Forest. The teams asked Ozpin about it.

"Are you sure about this? I know it's only one night, but there could be Grimm out there," Ozpin said, taking a sip of coffee.

"Pleeeeeease Ozpin?" Ruby begged, her hands clenched together and her eyes wide as dinner plates, lips quivering as she gave her best puppy-dog face that could melt even Weiss' ice-cold heart.

Ozpin had no visible reaction.

"You saw how well we did the first time we went there," Ren pointed out, looking as stoic as ever.

"Yeah! We can totally handle ourselves!" Yang smirked confidently, punching a fist in to her open palm.

"Just think of it as training of some kind," Pyrrha suggested, a polite and convincing smile on her face.

Ozpin took another sip of coffee, his eyes gazing down at the liquid before he looked back up, having finally reached his decision. "Hmm… alright."

The teams high-fived each other.

"On one condition," Ozpin held up a finger. "If there are no major injuries, I will also allow you to go again at another time."

"Done and done! Deal!" Nora exclaimed excitedly, jumping up and down.

* * *

"Are you guys packed? We are!" Nora grinned, entering the RWBY dorm with a white duffle bag over her shoulder.

"All of us but Weiss," Blake frowned, pointing at said heiress, who was busy placing bottles filled with multiple kinds of dust in to her suitcase.

"Why are you bringing so much Dust anyway?" Yang asked, raising a brow at Weiss.

Weiss turned to them, her face red from near-exhaustion and frustration. "Just in case!" She went back to packing her enormous suitcase.

"That's why your suitcase is so big?" Ruby's eyes widened, looking at the suitcase.

"I think that's enough Dust, Weiss," Blake said indifferently.

"You can never have enough Dust!" The heiress shot back, refusing to take her eyes away from her work.

It took some time, but Weiss finally managed to cram her dust in to every available inch of space in her suitcase before agreeing to start the trip. The teams borrowed four tents from a supply closet and were carrying them as they walked.

"Why don't we sing a song?" Ruby asked happily. "It'll make the time go by faster."

"It's gotta be long, too," Jaune added.

"1,000,000,vials of Dust on the wall, 1,000,000 vials of Duuuuust!" Nora yelled at the top of her lungs "Take one down, give it to Weiss, 999,999 vials of Dust on the wall!"

"Wha- hey!" Weiss exclaimed, offended.

"999,999 vials of Dust on the wall, 999,999 vials of Duuuuust! Take one down, give it to Weiss, 999 998 vials of Dust on the wall!"

"537,842 vials of Dust on the wall-" Nora gulped down some water from a bottle. "537 842 vials of Duuuuust! Take one down, give it to Weiss, 537 841 vials of Dust on the wall!"

"Nora, why are you still singing?" Ren asked, sighing.

Nora shoved her hand in his face, hitting him. "537,841 vials-"

* * *

"Oh great, I lost count," Nora's shoulders slumped, looking defeated. "Oh well, I'll just start over."

"NO! PLEASE NO!" Jaune looked panicked and tired. "That's good enough!"

Pyrrha, who had been next to Nora the whole time, looked confused.

"What's the matter, Pyrrha?" Ruby asked, noticing the unusual look on her face.

"What?" Pyrrha cupped her hand around her ear. "What did you saaaay?!"

Ren facepalmed. Nora looked even more unhappy.

"This seems like an alright spot," Weiss stopped walking, tapping a foot down on the ground. "Let's set up here."

"Huuuh?!" Pyrrha shouted. "Speak uuup!"

Weiss grabbed Pyrrha's suitcase and dragged their suitcases to a spot nearby. "We're sharing a tent, Pyrrha"- she walked up to Jaune and took a tent from him - "Thank you." she tried setting it up next to the suitcases.

"Hey Ruby, you know who I'm sharing a tent with?" Yang nudged Ruby, winking.

"Really? Who?" Ruby asked in confusion.

"You!" Yang said happily, walking to an open spot.

Yang was already holding a tent, so she set it up easily a few metres away from Weiss.

"C'mon, Ruby! Let's unpack!" Yang grabbed a protesting Ruby's arm and dragged her to their tent.

Weiss stared at Yang's perfectly-set-up tent, then looked back at her own, rickety from misplaced poles and fabric. It collapsed within a second.

"You know you're jealous!" Yang called to her obnoxiously.

"Am not!" Weiss called back, defending herself. She looked around and saw another tent set up, Nora's head peeking out of it.

"Over here Ren!" Nora called to him.

"Coming!" Ren walked into the tent.

Pyrrha walked over to Weiss. "You're not doing it right. That pole goes over here, not across the floor."

"Okay, okay..." Weiss grumbled. "Got it, Ms. Pole-expert..."

"I heard that," Pyrrha narrowed her eyes at her.

"Oh...You got your hearing back." Weiss frowned, trying not to look frightened by the champion that was inching closer and closer to her. Of course, Pyrrha wouldn't dare harm her, but what's the danger in having a little bit of fun?

Blake and Jaune looked at each other.

"Guess we're sharing," Blake said awkwardly.

"Yeah…" Jaune blinked. "Uh… let's just set up right where we're standing."

"Sounds good," Blake shrugged.

* * *

Team RWBY and JNPR sat around a campfire they made. Pyrrha and Yang actually made it(If you count throwing logs on to the ground and then using your semblance to create the fire), but the rest of them helped by gathering more firewood.

"So what do you want to do?" Jaune asked.

"1,000,000 vials of-" Nora started.

"We've had enough singing for today," Ren cut her off. Nora pouted, though it was no where near Ruby's level, and thus, it didn't even phase Ren..

"Why don't we roast marshmallows?" Ruby suggested.

"Yeah, and we can tell scary stories!" Yang added eagerly.

"Well, I brought marshmallows," Weiss held up a bag of marshmallows.

Everyone stared at her.

"What?" Weiss blinked twice in confusion "You all thought I couldn't do camping?"

"Well…" Ruby trailed off, looking from left to right.

Weiss scowled. "Just because I'm the heiress of the Schnee Dust Company doesn't mean I can't-"

"I'll go find some sticks!" Pyrrha stood up suddenly, before asking just as quickly, "Who's coming with me?" Ren stood and they walked away.

"I hope they come back alive," Nora said nervously.

"How else would they come back?" Weiss said snidely.

"What do we do while we wait?" Yang asked as Nora opened her mouth. "No, Nora." Nora pouted again.

They all heard the sound of a twig snapping. Nora, Ruby, Yang and Weiss gasped. Jaune let out a manly scream and clung to Ruby's arm.

"Relax, it's just us," a male voice said.

Ren and Pyrrha stepped out of the shadows.

"Whew! It's only you guys!" Weiss said, relieved.

"What, you thought we were Grimm?" Pyrrha giggled.

"Yeah. You're lucky I didn't blindly charge at you and beat you up," Yang smirked, pointing her thumb at herself as Pyrrha and Ren sat down.

Soon, everyone had their own stick with a marshmallow on it.

"So, who's telling the first scary story?" Ruby asked, before looking to her side. "And Jaune, you can let go now."

"Oops," Jaune let go of her arm, scratching the back of his neck sheepishly.

"Why do they always have to be scary stories?" Nora whined. "Why can't they just be regular stories?"

"Okay, we'll do regular stories," Yang said. "Who's first?"

"I'll go!" Ruby raised her hand, then began immediately. "Once upon a time there was a girl named Little Red Riding Hood. Her grandmother was sick so she decided to go to her grandmother's house with cookies.

"Since she had to walk through the forest to get there, she met a wolf who wanted to eat her cookies. 'No wolf, you can't have these cookies. They are for my granny' she said. 'Very well then' the wolf walked away. Red continues through the forest and arrives at Gran's house. She knocks on the door 'Gran! I have some cookies for you!' she said. 'Come in!' she heard an odd sounding voice from the other side-"

"Ooh! Ooh! Is it a cookie monster?" Nora guessed eagerly.

"Nora," Ren warned.

"Sorry." Nora ate her marshmallow.

Ruby bit her own marshmallow "As I was saying, Red opens the door and finds someone odd lying in Gran's bed. 'My, what big ears you have' she said. 'All the better to hear you with' the person said. 'My, what big eyes you have' Red said. 'All the better to see you with' the person said. 'My, what big teeth you have' Red said. 'All the better to EAT YOU WITH! NOM NOM NOM!'. Turns out, the weird person was the wolf in disguise."

"How'd he disguise himself?" Jaune asked.

"He ate the grandma and took her clothes," Ruby replied.

"What?!"

"Don't ask me, I didn't make it up," Ruby shrugged.

"That was a bit… morbid," Pyrrha said nervously.

"I have a less morbid story!" Yang ripped the marshmallow off the stick with her teeth.

"Let's hear it," Weiss said.

Yang swallowed her marshmallow "Okay, so there's a girl named Goldilocks. There are also three bears, Mama Bear, Papa Bear and Baby Bear- Blake, are you even listening?"

Blake was reading a disguised Ninjas of Love. "Yes, I'm listening, Yang."

"Okay. The three bears went for a walk, leaving three bowls of porridge on the table. Goldilocks breaks into their house and goes through each bowl. 'That's too hot, that's too cold, oh this one's just right!' she says after eating them. She goes to the living room and sits on their chairs 'These two are too big, but this one's just right!' Then she tries to sleep in their beds 'That's too hard, that's too soft-"

"There's no such thing as too soft!" Jaune exclaimed.

"Don't interrupt me!" Yang shot Jaune an evil look "- That's too soft, oh, this one's just right!' she said. Then the bears come home and catch her."

Silence.

"That's it?" Pyrrha raised a brow.

"Yep," Yang nodded. "That's it."

More silence.

"I think we should go to bed," Ruby said. Everyone silently agreed, going into their respective tents.

Everyone was asleep within 10 minutes except for Jaune and Blake.

"So, Blake…" Jaune looked at her from his sleeping bag. "Whatcha reading?"

"A book," Blake said impassively, looking up at him briefly.

"…Looks familiar," Jaune squinted, looking at the pure-black cover, oblivious to Blake's widened eyes.

_Wait...Is he..._

"Well, doesn't matter. Aren't you going to sleep?" Jaune asked, hoping she didn't stay up all night just reading her book. Call it an irrational fear, but it scared him to think she could just put down her book and watch him sleep soundly. It didn't help that Gambol Shroud was right next to her.

"Fine, I'll sleep," Blake sighed in defeat, putting down her book and lying down in her black sleeping bag. Jaune sighed in relief and went to sleep.

He didn't notice Blake staring at her.

_...If he actually likes _that _series, and he's fine with me liking it..._

_My prayers to find someone I can talk to about that book have been answered._


	3. April 19th

"Rise and shiiiiiine!" Nora exclaimed, waking Ren up.

"What is it, Nora?" Ren groaned, opening his eyes.

"It's morning!" Nora jumped up and down beside Ren's sleeping bag "Get up! You wake up Jaune and Blake, I'll get everyone else!"

"But…" Ren started, sitting up. Nora had left "How are you already dressed?"

* * *

Nora started with Ruby and Yang's tent. She tiptoed in as quietly as she could, giggling. She crouched down beside Ruby.

"Boop!" Nora poked Ruby's cheek "Boop!" she poked her again "Boop! Boop! Boop!"

"Yang…" Ruby grumbled in her sleep "Stop throwing strawberries at me…"

"Boop! C'mon, Ruby! Boop! Get up!" Nora exclaimed, grinning happily.

"Rrgh…" Ruby groaned, slapping away her hand.

Nora found a bag of cookies next to Ruby's head. She took out a cookie and waved it under Ruby's nose "Cookie!"

Ruby still slept. Nora put the cookie on Ruby's cheek. Her eyes were wide open.

"Ruby Rose reporting for duty!" Ruby said breathlessly. She looked to her right, sitting up "Nora!" Ruby glared at her for interrupting her sleep.

"Help me wake up Yang so I don't get killed!" Nora whispered loudly, pointing at the sleeping blonde.

* * *

Ren got dressed and went into Blake and Jaune's tent. He looked at the book beside Blake's head.

'Why does she keep reading _that book?_' Ren thought, walking over to Blake. Jaune was snoring, so he might be a lost cause.

"Blake" Ren shook her by the shoulder "Blake, get up"

"Nrrr… no…" Blake turned over on her other side, facing Ren.

Ren ran out of ideas, so he carefully took her bow off, revealing cat ears he'd never seen before. Blake's eyes shot open.

"What are you doing?!" Blake snatched the bow from him, putting it back on.

"I had to wake you up"

"Not like _that!_" Blake hissed "You could've just shaken me or something!"

"I did. Nothing happened" Ren said looking at her bow "So you're a Faunus"

Blake was sitting up by then, looking anywhere but Ren. She didn't expect _this_ to happen.

"Well… yeah" Blake finally looked at him "And yes, my team does know, in case you're wondering"

"So… are you going to help me wake Jaune? He looks like a lost cause" Ren looked at Jaune, who was snoring like a train.

* * *

Nora was 'booping' Weiss at the moment, and Pyrrha had woken up a few minutes ago from hearing said 'boops'. Nora was getting bored, so she decided to speed up the process. Pyrrha, still sleepy, hadn't noticed until it was too late.

"Nora, don't!"

Nora was already pouring a bit of yellow Dust on Weiss. It was about a pinch though, nothing to worry about, and she put it away. Weiss'll be fine. That was a joke, haha, fat chance.

Weiss was shocked awake, to put it simply.

"Blaghfzish!" Weiss screamed, sitting up, hair sticking up in all directions.

"_Nora"_ Weiss said through gritted teeth "You have _no idea_ how _dead_ you are going to be" she twitched violently, standing up, ready to beat Nora senseless.

Nora made a very wise decision and ran for dear life, Weiss chasing her. Pyrrha quickly got dressed and followed them.

* * *

Everyone was out of their tents by then, all trying to hold Weiss back. Weiss didn't care about her hair nearly as much as Yang did, but she didn't appreciate being jolted awake.

"Weiss, just let it go!" Jaune exclaimed in desperation, holding Weiss's ankle, Ruby was holding the other.

"Jaune's right!" Ruby exclaimed.

"Yeah, it's just hair!" Yang held Weiss's waist tightly.

"That coming from you?" Blake smirked, holding her wrist, Ren holding the other wrist.

"Hey!" Yang glared at her, offended.

"Weiss, you're not twitching anymore" Pyrrha pointed out. She was in front of Weiss, palms out in front of her.

"Fine, I'll let it slide" Weiss sighed "Just never shock me awake again"

"Okie dokie!" Nora grinned. That grin faltered when she felt a raindrop.

"What is it, Nora?" Ruby asked, standing up, as did Jaune. She felt a raindrop too "Oh"

"You all brought snacks, right?" Pyrrha asked. They all nodded "Alright, get into your tents, those snacks are breakfast"

Everyone went into their respective tents.

* * *

It was around 7:00 p.m. when the rain stopped. They _were_ planning to leave earlier, but oh well. The teams disassembled their tents and started walking back to Beacon. Slowly, because it was hard to move fast with all that mud.

"The mud's ruining my shoes~" Weiss complained "These are custom made!"

"I'm sure you have more than one pair, Weiss" Jaune said, glancing at her.

"It's true. Now that I think about it, you have fi-" Ruby started.

"Alright, fine, I do" Weiss confessed "But they're backup pairs!"

Nobody had anything to say to that, so it was silent for another ten or so minutes. Luckily, Nora knew exactly how to break the ice.

"Why are we walking anyway? Can't some of us just use our weapons to shoot us back to Beacon? Well, it's only about half of us who can do that. The rest of us should really try it sometime! It's like you're flying! Wait, you _are _flying, what am I talking about? Shooting your way through the air _is_ considered flying, right? Yeah, I'm pretty sure it is. Flying is when you're going through the air. Hold on, does that mean falling from a high place is considered flying? I don't think so, really. What do you think, Ren?"

"…-"

"Right, didn't think so either" Nora blinked.

Nora took Magnhild off her back, stood on the hammer part and positioned it so it was tilted upward.

"I guess I'll be going with what I said earlier, if any of you heard. HYAH!" Nora pulled the trigger and was shooting through the sky (no pun intended) back to Beacon, laughing all the way through.

"What just happened?" Pyrrha looked up.

"Nora left us" Blake said indifferently.

"At least she took one of the tents with her" Yang smiled, looking on the bright side "Let's pick up the pace or we'll be walking all night!"

* * *

It took them a couple of hours to get to the courtyard of Beacon.

'Stupid mud' Ruby groaned internally 'We would've been back sooner if it weren't for you'

"Heya guys!" Nora was waiting for them in front of the statue "What took you so long? I've been waiting forever!"

"It was the mud" Ruby walked past her, groaning. Nora followed them.

"It ruined my shoes!" Weiss dragged her big suitcase behind her, glaring at her shoes.

"It ruined all of our shoes" Blake pointed out.

Yeah, the long trek through the mud sucked the life out of them.

"How was the trip?" Ozpin asked the teams.

"Next time, would you check the forecast before you let us go?" Pyrrha asked.

**AN: Thanks for reading, reviewing, following and favouriting! Just to let you know, the date of Easter is the 2014 date, so you're not confused somehow. Also, I already have chapters 1 through 11 written, so after I post chapter 11, I'll be taking suggestions for the next three chapters. Chapters 12, 13, and 14 will be in the summertime, just to let you know. After 14 is posted, I'll take suggestions for 15, 16 and 17, which will also be in the summertime (the days off I mean). You get the idea? Thanks, and review!**


	4. April 20th (Easter Day 1)

**Disclaimer: I own nothing.**

**AN: thank you to DarkZexi for editing and checking! Review, I love reading them!**

Today was Easter, Ruby and Nora's second favorite time of year, the day of chocolate bunnies and Easter eggs or stuffing yourself with chocolate as the two thought it was about.

"Blake, Weiss, Yang!" Ruby exclaimed, clapping her hands while sitting on her bed before yelling "Wake up!"

"Ruby…" Yang mumbled in her sleep as she tried to ignore Ruby's orders "Not now…"

"It's 9:00 a.m! Get up!" Ruby said eagerly, jumping off her bed landing carefully in front of Weiss' bed, "Come on team!"

But she notices that they weren't moving anytime soon, 'Perfect!' she thought.

"Okay... that's fine" Ruby said innocently as she walked around quietly, "You can keep sleeping for now. I'll be out somewhere...so don't worry too much...yeah"

Her teammates either didn't care at the moment or didnt heard her talk and decided to return to their slumber. Ruby then got dressed and left the room quietly to go to the courtyard to meet up with someone.

* * *

"Jaune!" Nora whispered loudly while poking his forehead but no response, 'Good' she thought before she moved on to Ren.

"Boop!" she said quietly as possible while she poked Ren's nose. No response again, 'Last one to go' She thought and moved on to Pyrrha.

Pyrrha was a light sleeper which was going to be difficult for Nora but she was grateful she hadn't woken her up yet.

'I guess not eating all the pancakes that one time really paid off!' Nora thought 'Yay for good karma!' she cheered.

Carefully tugging on a strand of Pyrrha's hair, she hoped she wouldn't wake up. Heck, even looking at her could wake her up but what she was doing was in the red zone. Surprisingly, nothing happened.

Nora was already dressed, so she tiptoed out of their room, making her way to the courtyard.

When she got there, Ruby was leaning on the statue.

"Hey, Nora!" Ruby grinned, waving "What took you so long?"

"Pyrrha. You know what I'm talking about" Nora waved back, also grinning at her partner in their plan.

"So, let's get down to business" Ruby said with a serious look on her face, "Are you sure it'll work? I mean, I know it will work on Yang and Jaune, maybe even Pyrrha too. But…" She started getting worried about their plan at this point.

"Yeah, Weiss, we don't know. Ren and Blake will be fine with it, but Weiss…" Nora said thoughtfully, getting into her thinking position. This was basically Nora pretending she had a beard while thinking.

"We'll work it out when it happens, don't worry" Ruby said reassuringly. Then a light bulb appeared over her head "Wait! I got an idea!" She said happily.

"Will it work?" Nora asked curiously at her idea.

"I'm sure it will" Ruby said with confidence.

* * *

"Where's my little sister?!" Yang yelled while running around in the halls in her pajamas. The guys in the halls were lucky, indeed.

Except for Jaune, that is. The poor guy crashed right into Yang and she pinned him down in a very awkward position.

"Do you know where Ruby is?" Yang demanded, glaring at him. Jaune was too scared to respond due to their position, "Do you?" She repeated.

"U-um… she's with Nora" Jaune said as he blushed bright red at the view, "N-Nora left us a n-note. She took her sh-shopping. Please don't kill me!"

Yang thought about it for a moment before she got off him, "Nora, eh? I guess that's fine" she held her hand out to help him up "C'mon Vomit-boy, get up"

Once Jaune was on his feet, Yang walked away to her dorm to get dressed. But when she got there, she found Ruby and three delicious-looking delicacies on Weiss's and Blake's bed.

'What?' Yang thought as she jumped up to her bed to see if there was one on hers 'Why is this here?'

There was a hunk of chocolate in the shape of a flame on her bed.

"Hey, Ruby" Yang said suspiciously while turning to Ruby, "Do you know anything about this? It wasn't here when I left"

"I put it there!" Ruby smiled cheerfully.

"Thanks, but… why?" Yang asked.

"Well, it's Easter! The day of chocolate!" Ruby said as she ate her own rose-shaped chocolate, "At least, it is now"

"Oh, I see it now" She jumps down and playfully put her hands on her hips "You think I can't loosen up and celebrate a holiday instead of training, right?"

"Well, yeah" Ruby said with a bit of chocolate on her lips.

Yang then went towards Ruby and puts her in a headlock and gave her a noogie "I can't believe you think I can't have fun, Rubes! I'm the definition of fun!"

"Yang! You're messing up my hair!" Ruby pouted.

The door opened and Blake walked in, but she spotted the chocolate in the shape of a bow on her bed instead of the sisters "What's this?"

"It's a gift!" Ruby said after pushing Yang away.

"For what?" Blake questioned.

"Easter. You like chocolate, right?"

"Of course I do. It looks delicious" Blake walked to her bed and picked up the chocolate taking a bite out of it and smiled, "It is delicious"

"Oh! I never tried mine!" Yang jumped up took her chocolate and sunk her teeth into it "Mmh!, this is great!"

When Weiss walked in and gasped. There was a life-sized chocolate Myrtenaster on her bed that she quickly picked it up, running her fingers along it. She quickly stopped and stared at Ruby.

"Is this poisoned?" Weiss looked at Yang and Ruby "Drugged? Has some kind of chemical that will make me go crazy?"

"Nope!" Ruby then clasped her hands behind her back and smiled at her, "It's a gift for you. You need to loosen up and be happy more Weiss! Life is short!"

"Yeah, stop being a grump and take a picture of it or something" Yang said, eating what's left of her chocolate.

"I already did that" Ruby said while taking out her scroll to emphasize what she said.

"Go ahead and eat it, then!" Yang cheered, curious to see how the heiress would eat that much chocolate.

Weiss looked at the chocolate Myrtenaster in admiration. Until some of it started melting onto her hand…

"But it's a work of art!" Weiss said before turning to Ruby and asked, "Ruby, did you carve this?"

"Yep! It didn't even take that long!" Ruby grinned proud of herself and her work.

"I guess it wouldn't hurt to try…" Weiss took a bite off the 'blade' part and she was silent for a few seconds before a small smile barely appeared on her lips.

"So…" Ruby then started to think she did something wrong due to her partners reaction, "What do you thi-" she stopped when she saw Weiss taking a few more bites off the tip and very shortly half of the 'blade' was already gone.

The other girls blinked in ammusement at the speed she ate half of her chocolate. "So...You like it, then" Yang stated while still surprised of what she just witnessed.

"We can tell, Yang" Blake said while trying her best to resist facepalming.

"Okay, okay, you don't need to be all catty about it" Yang joked while winking at Blake.

"Not funny" Blake said in her serious tone as she frowned at her pun.

* * *

Nora waited for her teammates to come back from wherever they were after she placed her chocolates on each of their beds.

'It's been 10 minutes since I got in here, what's taking so long?' Nora thought while sitting on her bed, 'I hope they like them…'

She glanced back at the chocolates on her teams individual beds, like Ruby told her to do. Ren's was a flower, a lotus to be more specific, Jaune's was his family symbol which was an arc and Pyrrha's was a circle with a few marking on it, which was meant to be her shield.

Her team came in together and looked at Nora who grinned and bounced in her bed.

"Hey, guys!" Nora cheered happily and waved at her friends "I got you all presents for being such great teammates!"

"Really? Thank you, Nora" Pyrrha said politely and picked up a chocolate circle from her bed "Why is it a circle?"

"It's supposed to be your shield" Nora said confused and blinked, 'I knew I should've done something better than just drawing it!' she thought to herself.

"Oh! Well, they do resemble each other" Pyrrha held her shield in one hand and the chocolate circle in the other hand but didn't really saw the resemblance, "Yeah… they do…" she took a two bites to make it look more like her shield before asking Jaune,"But it's the thought that counts, right Jaune?"

Pyrrha glanced around their room until she found Jaune facing his bed, "Jaune?"

Jaune then turn around while taking one last bite of his chocolate, mouth and hands stained with white chocolate "Huh? Oh, yeah! Hey Nora, how'd you know I like white chocolate?" He asked while cleaning himself up, which made Pyrrha slightly disappointed, 'need to faster next time' she thought

"Just a guess" Nora giggled at her team leader before turning to Ren and asked, "How'd you like yours Ren?"

"It's great Nora, thanks" Ren said with a faint smile while holding his lotus-shaped chocolate which was now half-finished.

The door was suddenly burst open by Ruby who was standing in the doorway.

"Operation Chocolate 626 successful?" Ruby looked pointedly at Nora with a somewhat serious look.

"Operation Chocolate 626 successful!" Nora got up and gave Ruby a high-five with a victory smile.

"Operation what?" Jaune asked with a confused expression as they high-fived.

"Oh, nothing Jaune" They both replied with a smile.


	5. April 21st (Easter Day 2)

**Disclaimer: I don't own RWBY. Roosterteeth owns it.**

Ruby was sitting on her bed, bored out of her mind. She really needed something to do.

'Ooh! I could message Nora to pass the time!' Ruby thought, smiling as she got her Scroll. She tapped the yellow diamond and the Scroll opened up, and she tapped the 'Mail' icon on the bottom of the screen. She chose the name 'Nora' and started messaging her. 'I just hope she isn't busy' Ruby thought.

She typed 'What do you want to do?' and hit Send. After a minute, she heard a 'Ding!', meaning she got a message. 'I dunno' it read.

Ruby: What do you mean?

Nora: Why don't we… extend Easter?

Ruby: Extend it? How?

Nora: We could do something Easter-y for no reason?

Ruby: Wait, what? Why? Do we have to?

Nora: Well… are you bored? I know I am.

Ruby: Yeah, I'm bored.

Nora: Then it's settled! We will do whatever comes to mind!

Ruby: Okay… sure. What do we do?

Nora: You should dress up as a bunny and give your teammates chocolate eggs! :D

Ruby: W-what?

Nora: Yeah! You could be all white and fluffy!

Ruby: No way!

Nora: Yes way! C'mon Ruby, we're both bored and have nothing to do.

Ruby: Fine, only because there's nothing to do.

Nora: Yay! :D

Ruby: I'm not sure about the idea, though… :(

Nora: I'm shopping for your costume! Brb

Ruby: Okay.

Ruby closed her Scroll. 'What have I gotten myself into?'

* * *

About half an hour passed and there was a knock on the door. Ruby answered it, seeing Nora and Yang each holding bunny costumes and a basket of chocolate eggs.

"Yang?" Ruby said, confused "What are you doing here?"

"There's a slight change of plans," Nora said "Both you and Yang are wearing bunny costumes."

"Yeah! C'mon Ruby, let's put them on!" Yang took the costume from Nora and Nora handed the basket of eggs to Ruby.

"I'll be going now," Nora said, walking away "Good luck!" Yang closed the door.

"Let's see how they look!" Yang put the bunny head on, making sure her hair didn't stick out, which was hard "How do I look?" her voice came out muffled.

Ruby took a step back "It looks good. You just need to put on the body part of it."

"Can you help me?" Yang said "These eyeholes are particularly small…"

Soon enough, they were both in their white and fluffy bunny costumes with small eyeholes.

"All we need to do now is creep our partners out!" Yang picked up her basket of eggs.

"But… what do we do?" Ruby asked, taking her own basket.

"You're right," Yang said, smirking under her bunny head "Just giving it to them would be _way_ too easy… I know what to do."

* * *

When Blake and Weiss came back from who knows where, everything seemed off.

"Where're Ruby and Yang?" Weiss asked suspiciously "It's late evening, where could they even be?"

"Probably ogling some boys or hanging out," Blake walked into their bathroom "W-what?!"

There was a fluffy white bunny staring at her from the shower stall "Heheheheheh…"

"I know it's you, Yang," Blake took the bunny head off.

"Darn!"

With Weiss, it was different. She opened the closet door and there was a bunny with huge purple eyes staring into her soul. Weiss let out a scream and the bunny was laughing to herself.

"Why you- you scared the crap out of me!" Weiss shrieked, taking the bunny head off "Ruby! How dare you! I could've had a heart attack!"

"Weiss, it's a joke," Ruby laughed "Have a sense of humor, you grump!"

"I am _not _a grump!" Weiss exclaimed.

When Weiss and Blake went to bed that night, Ruby and Yang were already asleep. After they took the covers off to get onto bed, there were baskets of chocolate eggs on each bed. They both had a note on them saying:

_Sorry for scaring you. It wasn't our fault. Nora put us up to this._

_It was funny, though, hahaha_

_Ruby and Yang_

Weiss and Blake looked at each other.

"Nora," they said in unison.


	6. May 19th

**Author's Note:**

**I can't believe Volume 2 is only two days away! I'm so excited! Anyway, here's chapter 6! Enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: Roosterteeth owns RWBY, not me**

After breakfast, Pyrrha had decided it was high time to try something new. She dragged her friends to a flower field not too far away from Beacon.

"We're doing _what?"_ Jaune exclaimed.

"We're making daisy chains," Pyrrha said for the third time.

"It might not be so bad, Jaune," Ruby said.

"Yeah, grow up," Weiss added.

"But we're _seventeen," _Jaune whined "Besides, why aren't _you_ so opposed to it, Weiss? You told me to grow up seconds ago."

Weiss crossed her arms and glared at him icily, offended. Jaune saw it as a sign.

"N-nevermind."

"What flowers are we using?" Ruby asked, curious "Are we using one kind or all kinds?"

Pyrrha thought about it 'Hmm… would it look better as one colour or like a rainbow…'

"All kinds," Pyrrha answered "Let's get started, guys."

* * *

Ruby was picking flowers for their flower chain… thing (apparently it's going to be a wreath) when she heard a familiar voice coming from behind her.

"Hello, Ruby! Remember me? It's your friend, Penny!"

Ruby turned around, still kneeling, with a surprised look on her face "Penny?!"

"Yes, it's me. I thought I told you…" Penny tilted her head to the side in confusion.

"Yeah, but…" Ruby grinned "Where'd you go?! How've you been? It's been so long!"

"Where I went is confidential, but I've been doing pretty well," Penny said. She started looking around "Who are these people? Are they your friends? Maybe they can be my friends too!"

"I'll introduce you when I pick enough flowers," Ruby said, picking a couple of roses "Say, how did you get here? How did you know where I was?"

"I snuck out of my… house," Penny blinked.

"Really? Do your parents know?" Ruby asked, forgetting the point of sneaking out.

"No…" Penny said blankly. She suddenly looked alarmed, putting her hands on her cheeks "Oh no! Are they supposed to know I snuck out? Have I done something wrong? This is terrible!"

"Calm down, Penny. You're going to meet my friends soon, though!" Ruby changed the subject.

"Ooh! How exciting!" Penny clapped her hands joyfully.

* * *

Blake, Yang, Weiss and Team JNPR got together.

"Where's Ruby?" Yang looked around frantically.

"Right here!" Ruby waved, holding her roses. Penny was beside her.

"Is that…" Blake started, holding flowers of her own.

"Penny!?" Weiss and Yang cried "What're you doing here?"

"You know that girl?" Jaune asked Blake.

"Yes… we do," Blake replied.

"Oh, you remember me!" Penny jumped up and down "How amazing! I remember you, too! You're that grumpy one, Weiss!" she pointed at Weiss "You're the Faunus, Blake!" she pointed at Blake "And you're the one with the impressive cleavage!" she pointed at Yang.

"W-what?" Yang blushed, eyes the size of dinner plates.

"Who are your other friends?" Penny continued.

Ruby blinked "Well… Penny…" she looked at Ren "That's Ren…" Ren waved.

"I'm Jaune Arc!" Jaune held out his hand. Penny firmly shook his hand "Pleased to meet you, Jaune Arc!"

"Just call me Jaune."

"I'm Pyrrha," Pyrrha smiled "Nice to meet you, Penny."

"Nice to meet you, too!" Penny grinned from ear to ear.

Nora marched up to Penny, sticking her hand out "And I'm Nora!" they shook hands excitedly "I have a feeling we'll be great friends!"

"Me too!" Penny said "You look a little like me. Could we be… _sisters_?"

"Oh no…" Ren put his face in his hands.

"It's possible, but I don't think so," Nora said "It's weird, though, having someone look like you. I wonder how twins live their lives…"

"So do I!" Penny exclaimed, a surprised look on her face "I mean, how do people tell them apart if they're identical?"

Needless to say, Nora and Penny were great friends. As the group made their flower wreath, Nora and Penny got to talking.

"Hey Penny, do you know why sloths move so slowly?" Nora asked her new friend.

"Hmm…" Penny's eyes widened as she tied two flowers together "I think they're just lazy, but the fact is it's because of what they eat."

"Huh? Why?" Nora was intrigued.

"Well, they are vegetarians. That means the leaves don't give them too much energy, so they move slowly to conserve it," Penny stated "You don't know this? I thought you were obsessed with sloths."

"Yeah, I like sloths, but I'm not obsessed," Nora said "But I think that's pretty cool! Wait… but how do they go to the bathroom?"

The whole group stopped what they were doing. They were listening to their conversation as they worked, but they couldn't help but visualize…

"Um… I'm sure they use a bucket or something," Ruby cringed with a disgusted look on her face like everyone else.

"Really? So they use the same bucket for years on end? Doesn't that smell?" Nora questioned "I mean, having the smell of pee hanging around in the air all your life. Wait, what about the girls? What do they do? What about when they give birth? Do they just hang there or…"

Even worse images crossed their minds.

"Can we please change the subject?!" Jaune cried desperately "I'm getting mental images!"

"So are the rest of us," Yang said "Are we finished making the wreath yet?"

"Yep!" Pyrrha held up the flower wreath "Tada!"

"Does it represent something?" Yang asked.

"Uh…" Pyrrha said nervously "Never thought about it… what do you think?"

It was silent for a while.

"How about our friendship?" Penny suggested.

"Why?" Weiss asked.

"Because we're friends and we made it together," Penny grinned, then it fell "You _are_ my friends, right?"

"Of course we are!" Yang put Penny in a headlock "How can we not be?"

"Is this how you show friendship?" Penny blinked as she let her go "You put someone's head in your armpit?"

"Well… when you put it tha- Hey!" Yang exclaimed as Penny put her in a headlock, messing up her hair.

That was a big mistake. Penny quickly let her go.

Yang gritted her teeth "Did you _mess up my hair?"_ she squeezed her eyes shut, clenching her fists to prevent herself form hurting Penny "It took me _fifteen minutes _to brush my hair today!"

"Run Penny!" Ruby shouted to her friend.

"B-bye! I'll see you later!" Penny called, running for her life. Soon, she was out of sight. Everyone stared at Yang.

"Yang! Why'd you do that?" Ruby exclaimed.

"You scared her off!" Pyrrha added.

"She messed with MY HAIR!" Yang shouted, eyes still closed "_Nobody_ messes with _my hair!_ We're lucky I didn't hurt her!"

It was true, Yang would normally pounce on the offender immediately. She made some progress in keeping herself together.

"Just don't do it again," Weiss spoke up "We don't want anyone's blood on anyone here's hands, right?"

They stared at her, surprised. Did she just defend Penny?

"Did _you _just defend Penny?" Blake voiced everyone's thoughts.

"That's not a very 'Weiss' thing, is it?" Jaune added.

"Look, I know you kind of warmed up to her too," Weiss defended herself "…You would've done the same."


	7. July 18th

Disclaimer: I still don't own RWBY. Never will

* * *

'Yes! 2 weeks off, finally!' Ruby screamed in her head as she slowly slid off her bed, smiling excitedly. The slow, creaking and rocking of her bed that came from her slide drew a random thought to her as she dressed. 'How did we manage to keep my bed hanging from the ceiling for so long?' She cast a quick and worried glance at the still-shaking structure, before shrugging it off. 'Ah, doesn't matter. Vacation!'

It was that time of year, the famous 2 week vacation. This was the time most Beacon students took to go completely into a state of relaxation, and forget about their schoolwork. The most popular places to go to were the beach and the clubs, and some went to both. It truly was glorious, given the warm weather too.

* * *

The teams we know and love gathered in the cafeteria at breakfast time. Both were deciding on how to spend their 2 weeks of vacation.

"Why don't we go to the beach for a while?" Yang suggested, smiling at the thought of them all playing together in the water.

"Won't it be packed?" Weiss asked incredulously as her brows furrowed, making it clear that she thought the suggestion wasn't a smart one. "You know how many people are going, right?"

"Of course I do!" Yang rolled her eyes, visibly unimpressed with Weiss' tone. "That's why we're going later in the day!"

"You mean at night?" Pyrrha asked, an eyebrow raised at the thought.

"Is that safe?" Blake asked, her eyes focused completely on her book yet her ears listening in to the conversation. "Don't most kidnappings or murders happen at night?"

"You don't know that, you're just purrranoid," Yang said, grinning as loud groans immediately came in response. "Besides, we've got Ren and Jaune. They'll protect us, right, boys?" She nudged Jaune in the side with her elbow.

"Why do you need us?" Jaune asked. "You could poke someone and they'd be down for the count! You're probably even stronger than Ren!"

"You can handle yourselves anyway," Ren added, his arms crossed but his tone indifferent as always. "Don't you even remember how we're in Beacon? We can all fight."

"So later in the day it is!" Yang announced loudly, ending the discussion as the two boys looked at each other worriedly. "We leave at five and come back at seven! No complaints!"

* * *

The group arrived at around 5:30pm and they headed to the changing rooms.

"Man, we're lucky the sun doesn't set until 9:00." Yang said to Pyrrha as they walked out, their normal clothes in plastic bags.

"Yeah, we are." Pyrrha said, glancing at Yang's outfit. The redhead was wearing a light brown tankini, "There's not many people here either. Hey, I like your swimsuit"

"Thanks, I like yours too!" Yang smiled. She wore a yellow bikini.

The rest of the group soon came out. Ruby wore a black and red one-piece bathing suit, Blake wore a black bikini top and short swimming shorts. Nora had on a purple tankini, Weiss wore a light blue bikini, Jaune had gray trunks and Ren had green trunks.

"Let's get in the water!" Yang ran to the dock with Ruby, Nora and Pyrrha. Yang, Ruby and Nora cannonballed in and Pyrrha did a simple dive. Weiss and Jaune walked into the water.

The knight in shining armor, of course, saw his chance to slip in a 'compliment' to the heiress. Walking over to her, he put on his best gentlemanly face. "You look beautiful with your hair down, Weiss," he said, but she was unimpressed with his attempts to flirt with her.

"Nice try, Jaune" Weiss scoffed, crossing her arms as she looked away, her nose pointed in the air. Though there was a slight tug in the corner of her lips, Weiss trying to hide her amusement at the blondes feeble attempts, and Jaune interpreted this as a sign to keep going.

Meanwhile, Ren was about to join his friends in the water when he noticed Blake wasn't moving an inch. She'd even brought a book to read. Then again, from what he'd seen, it really wasn't that surprising.

"Aren't you coming?" Ren asked, his eyes focused on the title of the book.

"No, I don't want to get my bow wet," Blake said, her 'bow' twitching a small amount. Ren nodded in understanding and quickly made his way into the water.

'I'll sit this one out' Blake thought, sitting on the sand as she briefly looked up from her book to watch her friends mess around with each other.

"Gah, the water! It buuuuuuuurns!" Yang yelled dramatically as she covered her eyes. Ruby had splashed her, and much of the water had made it in to her eyes.

"Sorry Yang! Are you okay?" Ruby asked, upset with what she had done.

"Yeah, I'm fine now," Yang took her hands off her eyes, shrugging off the event as if nothing happened. "It only stings for a few seconds. No harm done"

"Really?" Pyrrha asked.

"Yeah. Stick your head under the water and open your eyes." Yang pushed Pyrrha's head halfway under the water before stopping herself. "Oops, sorry"

Pyrrha resurfaced quickly, unprepared for the sudden push. "It's fine," Pyrrha spluttered, although her near undetectable glare contradicted her statement. She then stuck her head underwater and opened her eyes. As Yang had described, it stung for a few seconds, then the pain quickly faded away. She brought her head back up, calling to the others, "She's right!"

A light bulb turned on above Ruby's head. "Let's look at fish! Come on!" She dove underwater and swam further from the shore. Everyone in the water soon followed her, looking at the fish, occasionally going to the surface for air.

Then a large shark blurred in to their view, and it was heading towards them.

"Mmm?!" Weiss exclaimed underwater. She saw Jaune already escaping, Pyrrha and Ren too.

The shark wasn't especially close, but it got closer and opened its mouth, showing off its large amount of razor sharp teeth.

'Gosh, Weiss, MOVE!' Weiss thought, swimming as fast as she possibly could. Nora zoomed past her. 'Typical Nora, always speeding along' Weiss thought out of the blue. She didn't look back once, for fear of getting so afraid that she'd stop swimming and die. 'Wait, where's Yang and Ruby?!'

In a panic, she looked back, but not long enough because she quickly turned back to the front of her so she could get to the surface and go from there. Once Weiss got to the surface, she quickly swam to shore, where her other friends were waiting, exhausted.

"Where's Ruby and Yang?" Pyrrha demanded. "Did they get caught?"

"I don't know!" Weiss panted, her tone filled with guilt as she replied, "I didn't get a good enough view!"

"How does that help us?" Pyrrha glared at her.

"Pyrrha, please don't blame Weiss," Blake said, "Yang and Ruby are fine, I'm certain. Maybe the shark stopped chasing them."

"Sorry, I'm just worried." Pyrrha sighed. "But I can't see how it would just stop chasing them. I mean, a shark won't usually just give up a chase like that."

There was a silence that was quickly broken by the loudest gasps they've ever heard. They looked to the water and saw a head of blonde hair and another with red hair.

"Is that them?" Ren asked, Jaune squinting with him to try and see if the pair were indeed their missing friends.

"Uh… no. They're not them." Jaune finally answered.

The group quickly realized that it was two strangers.

"You're kidding." Weiss crossed her arms.

"Do you think…?" Jaune started, unsure if he should finish what he was going to say.

"Don't think like that, Jaune!" Nora frowned at him, upset at her leader selling the reaper and brawler short. "They're fine, I'm sure they are!"

Another blonde and redhead started walking onto shore. The girls' hair was plastered to their faces, some covering their eyes. They were both spluttering water out of their mouths.

"That was close," the blonde pulled some hair away from her face "We almost got chomped big time."

"Yeah, I don't know what would've happened if you hadn't freed me from the seaweed." The redhead ripped some more of the aforementioned seaweed off of her arm.

"Yang?" Jaune called.

"Huh? What? Who called me?" Yang looked in all directions frantically.

"I did!" Jaune yelled again.

"Oh, hey Jaune! Guys!" Yang waved, pulling Ruby with her to her friends "We almost died, but we're fine!" The happy grin on her face seemed to say otherwise.

"You have no idea how much we worried about you!" Weiss exclaimed. "We thought you were...!" She didn't dare finish the sentence, not even wanting the gruesome image in her head.

"Chill out, ice queen," Yang said(followed by more groans), hands on her hips. "We're alive and well, why aren't you happy about that?"

"I am happy, but-it's just-Ugh!" Weiss stamped her feet in frustration at the blondes uncaring mood. "You barely survived a shark attack, yet you act like it was nothing special!"

Yang stared, her face unreadable before deadpanning, "Weiss, I broke a night club and took a batzooka to the face. A big fish isn't gonna scare me."

"Weiss, just let it go!" Ruby tried to calm her down as Yang started to quietly mutter, "Can't hold it back anymooore..." The reaper sent her sister a glare, quickly silencing her before she could make the situation worse.

Weiss clenched her fists at her sides "Fine! But we're going home, right now!"

* * *

'How can you just laugh something like a shark attack off? Doesn't she know they both could've died?!' Weiss thought as she changed 'It's so frustrating! Ugh!'

"Weiss?" Though Nora's face resembled that of a cheery one, her tone was filled with worry for her friend, worry that the heiress appreciated. "Are you okay?"

Weiss took a deep sigh before answering. "Yes, I'm fine."

"Lucky for us that we managed to smell something fishy going on before we got caught!" Yang said.

There were even more groans. Someone even screamed.


	8. July 19th

**Disclaimer: I don't own RWBY, Roosterteeth owns it.**

The group had agreed at breakfast that they would be going to the beach for two more days to try things that they've never done before. Today, they were playing volleyball. They knew the rules, they had a net, and they were ready to go. In fact, they were already playing.

Blake and Ren were sitting out for a while, the Faunus reading her Ninjas of Love book, and the lotus watching their friends play. They were focused, occasionally groaning when the opposing team got a point and said team briefly celebrating gaining a point.

"Hey, guys!" Yang waved at Ren and Blake as Yang's team cheered behind her, having just scored a point. "You just gonna sit there or what?"

"Yeah, you both would be good players!" Ruby grinned at them.

Ren took a moment to think, his face as blank as ever. Deciding that now would be as good a time as any other, he shrugged. "Alright…" The lotus responded, walking over to Yang, Ruby and Jaune's side.

"You're on our team, Blake!" Nora waved her over happily.

"Okay, I'm coming." Blake marked the page she was on with a bookmark and carefully placed it down neatly on to the sand, then went on to join Nora, Pyrrha and Weiss's team.

After playing for a while, it was clear that Ruby's team was winning, mainly because of Yang's powerful spikes that could make mini-craters and Ruby's incredible speed which practically gave her cover over her entire side.

"Ruby, can you slow down a little?" Pyrrha panted, bumping the ball high up past the net. "We can't keep up. It's not competitive, remember?"

"Blake seems to be keeping up just fine," Jaune pointed out as said quick-footed and agile Faunus spiked the ball.

"You have both Ruby and Yang on your team, though." Weiss interjected, gesturing to the reaper and brawler "You have the advantage."

"No big deal, guys!" Yang yelled playfully, spiking the ball and earning a point. "We're not really keeping score, are we?"

"I thought we were…" Ruby said, confused.

After about an hour of enough fun and growing exhaustion, they stopped playing and sat by the water, Blake reading her book again. The gentle waves swept in and touched their feet every few seconds.

"What time is it?" Ruby asked.

"I'm not sure," Jaune said "Maybe around three in the afternoon."

"How about we get some ice cream?" Weiss suggested after a short silence. Her friends stared at her. "What? I'm hungry and it's hot out. Let's go!"

It didn't take long for the teams to shower, get changed, and leave the beach in search of an ice cream shop.

"There! Found one!" Ruby exclaimed excitedly, pointing to a place called Vale's Ice Cream and Frozen Yogurt.

They walked in, minutes passing by quickly as they got their ice cream and sat down at a large table.

"You got blueberry frozen yogurt?" Yang asked Weiss, looking at her chosen food.

"Yes, why are you surprised?" Weiss gave the blonde a confused stare, which came off as more of a slight glare.

"Well, you seem more like a cookies and cream kind of person to me," Yang analyzed her face, "Yep, cookies and cream."

"Why?" Weiss challenged her.

"I don't know. I just think that flavour of ice queen suits you," Yang grinned immediately as she made the pun. Instantly, the teens groaned. Some could have sworn that they even heard strangers from other tables sigh at the joke. Or were they just hearing things?

"Well, you seem like a birthday cake type of person to me." Weiss blinked at Yang's ice cream.

"What's wrong with mint chip?!" Yang said, flustered.

"Nothing's wrong with it. Blake just seems more like a mint chip person." Weiss said.

"Why are you bringing me into this?" Blake narrowed her eyes at the bickering girls.

"Um… you seem like a mint chip person?" Yang said nervously, taking a big bite of her ice cream to cover it up.

"…" Blake blinked at her. "Your ice cream's melting"

"What?!" Yang said, surprised that she didn't notice the once icy treat melting onto her hand. She frantically licked it off, using her other hand to catch the remaining drops, and tried eating the remains of the ice cream quickly.

"Don't eat it too fast, Yang!" Pyrrha warned her, taking a bite of her chocolate ice cream "You can get brain fr-"

"Agh! It hurts!" Yang pouted, putting a hand on her head. "I'm never doing that again..."

There was a sudden silence as the other seven members stared at Yang. "...What?" She asked confused as she scratched her head. She realized that her hand was getting wet from something. Looking at said appendage, she saw melted ice cream. Then she realized...

"AAAAH!"


	9. July 20th

Disclaimer: Roosterteeth owns RWBY.

* * *

The gang was at the beach again, and they were pumped to spend their last day there with as much fun as they possible could, but they had no ideas. So, they resorted to putting their heads together to try to figure out something fun and enjoyable for everybody. Naturally, Yang rose to the challenge when no one else did.

"I know what we should do!" Yang piped up, a playful smirk in her face. "Jaune, come here!"

"What?" The blonde spluttered, "Why?" Jaune put his hands up as if he were surrendering, eyes wide with fear. "Oh no... you're gonna hurt me aren't you? I didn't do anything, I swea-..." He put his hands down when he realized Yang was on her knees digging a hole with her hands like a dog. "Why are you digging a hole?" Jaune asked, all signs of fear in his body replaced with confusion.

"You'll see," Yang looked at Jaune, her trademark smirk still on her face.

"..." Her friends waited patiently, watching the pile of sand and the hole grow larger and larger. The pit was now a few feet deep.

"Seriously, Yang," Weiss crossed her arms, having had enough of the brawler's strange antics. She spoke with an impatient tone, "What's the hole for, burying treasure?"

"Come on, Weiss so serious?" Yang made sure to emphasize the 'Weiss'. Of course, she laughed at her own pun, but there were quite a few groans that led strangers to glance in confusion. "Alright, I'm done." Yang finished digging, standing up and wiping her dirtied hands on her legs. She turned to Jaune, and pointed at the pit. "Get in the hole!"

Jaune blinked, first from bewilderment, then in horror. "What?! Did you literally just dig my own gra-" Yang pushed him in, the hole big enough to hide everything but Jaune's head. Yang started filling the hole with sand.

"What are you doing?!" Jaune screeched. "I don't approve!"

"C'mon guys! Help me out!" Yang exclaimed, grinning at her friends. Weiss happily followed, quickly filling up the hole with Yang.

"Weiss?!" Jaune exclaimed, his heart filled with pangs of shock and sadness from Weiss' betrayal.

"What? It's fun." Weiss said innocently, trying to keep a straight face on as they finished up.

Jaune looked at everyone and they stared back at him, holding back laughter. His head appeared to be sitting on the sand.

"Why are you staring at me like that?" Jaune blinked cluelessly at them, having slightly calmed down from the at first panic-inducing situation.

"You're just a head!" Ruby and Nora burst out laughing.

"Stop laughing!" Jaune cried in desperation. It was no use, they were all laughing now, and all Jaune could do was growl, snarl, and scowl at them.

"Jaune, it's all in good nature," Pyrrha giggled, "We're not making fun of you."

"Could of fooled me..." he muttered, looking away.

Yang wiped the tears of mirth from her eyes. "Okay, who's next?"

Almost immediately, everyone stopped laughing. "Huh?"

"Okay Nora, you're next." Yang started digging again.

It didn't take very long, and unlike what happened to Jaune, they actually gave their permission(Although there were some slight difficulties with Ren, requiring excessive force). Yang and Weiss buried Nora, Ren, Pyrrha and Ruby.

"Jump in, Blake" Yang gestured to a hole.

"No." Blake shook her head.

"Why not? It's for fun." Weiss tilted her head to the side.

"No." Blake wasn't changing her mind.

"Hole. Now" Weiss demanded, pointing to the hole.

"No."

"You've got some nerve-" Weiss was cut off as Yang pushed her aside to pick up Blake. Unceremoniously throwing her in to the pit, the Faunus immediately tried getting out.

"Quick, Weiss!" Yang shouted. "Quick like a bunny! Before she gets away!"

They filled the hole to Blake's waist.

"Phew! Now she can't get away," Weiss sighed in content. Blake, in a desperate attempt to escape, put her hands on the edges of the sand pit by her head and tried pushing herself out of the hole.

"Weiss, hurry up!" Yang exclaimed, flailing her arms around in panic. "Get her arms back in the hole!"

Weiss grumpily followed orders and helped Yang finish filling the hole. Blake glared at the two for foiling her escape plan.

"Nice try." Weiss panted.

"Okay, I'll go next!" Yang started digging another hole.

Once Yang was buried, Weiss, to the surprise of many, tried to bury herself as fast as she could.

"What's taking you so long?" Yang asked loudly, looking completely natural with just her head above the sand to people that knew her well. "We don't have all day!"

Weiss was currently in the hole, sand up to her elbows. "This is harder than it looks, especially when you're doing it all by yourself!"

Eventually they were all buried up to their necks, the eight heads in a circle formation, which earned them funny looks from strangers.

"Mommy, look!" A little girl pointed at the heads. Her mother looked at the teenagers, and was horrified.

"Don't look at them, Maria!" her mother scolded, dragging her away by the arm. "They're crazy and don't know what they're doing!"

"How dare you!" Weiss yelled at them in anger. "You should never insult a Schnee! What bad manners!" The two strangers ignored her.

"Weiss, it's not worth it," Pyrrha sighed, shaking her head "They're not listening."

Weiss simply glared at the little girl's mother.

"So..." Ruby said nervously. "How do we get out?"

"That's a good question." Blake looked at Yang expectantly, although her narrowed eyes made it seem as if she knew what was about to happen. "Did you think this through?"

"Well... no..." Yang looked away in shame. "Oops..."

"YANG!" Seven heads shouted in frustration.

"Sorry!"

"What do we do now?" Jaune asked, losing hope.

"Wait for help, I guess." Blake shrugged under the sand.

* * *

'How can anyone not see us?' Pyrrha thought in disbelief. 'It's been forever! We're eight heads in a circle! Seriously!'

Blake was staring straight ahead when someone caught her attention. He was walking on the sand and seemed to be passing by when he looked straight at her, eyes growing wide.

"Blake?!" He ran over to the group.

"Sun?" Blake was just as surprised. "What are you doing here?"

"No no no," The monkey faunus waved his hands, his head shaking furiously. "What are YOU doing here?" Sun pointed at her. "You're a head!"

"I know that." Blake deadpanned.

"Hey, you're that monkey boy we saw ages ago!" Yang looked up at Sun. "Didn't Blake run off with you or something?"

"Yeah, after she argued with Weiss and ran away." Ruby added in realization, eyes wide.

"No, look, she didn't run away with me." Sun shook his head.

"Can you get us out!?" Nora asked loudly. "Yang buried us all for fun!"

Sun was confused. "Which one's Yang?" He pointed at Ren. "Is it you?"

Ren stared, wondering if this stranger was serious, before answering, "No. It's the blonde girl." Ren said. If he could facepalm, he would.

"Oh..." Sun pointed at Jaune, trying to hide a smirk. "You?"

"NO!" Jaune shouted, making it clear that he was greatly offended.

"Me, I'm Yang!" Yang grinned, pulling her arm out with a bit of struggle and shaking Sun's outstretched hand. "Nice to officially meet you!"

"Yang!" Ruby glared at her sister. "You could've done that this whole time?!"

Six other heads glared at the brawler.

"Um... hahaha..." Yang looked from left to right, her grin turning into a nervous one. She pulled herself out, sitting in the sand. "Didn't notice until now, heheh... Why are you looking at me like that?"

"Oh, I don't know..." Weiss said sarcastically, "Maybe we want to be free too?"

"Oh!" Yang scrambled to dig the heiress out.

The Faunus quickly dug out Pyrrha, and once she was back on her feet, they both watched Yang dig out everyone else. Sun leaned towards her, eyes still on Yang in a cautious manner. "Is she always like this?" Sun whispered.

"Only sometimes," Pyrrha shrugged, smiling. "She can be nice and caring when she wants to be."

"Really?" Sun blinked, both eyes now on the redhead. "Ya could of fooled me."

"I'm Pyrrha, by the way." Pyrrha shook his hand, smiling.

"Pyrrha Nikos?" Sun asked, his eyes widening in recognition.

Pyrrha frowned. Was this another person that would treat her like some almighty Goddess just because of her fame?

"The one on the cereal box?"

Oh...

"Yeah," Pyrrha said as casually as she could, quickly walking towards Nora who stared at them with a big grin on her face. "We still have to free them, remember?"

* * *

After everyone was freed(And finished scraping out bits of sand that managed to weave their way in to sensitive areas), the gang introduced themselves to the monkey Faunus, but Jaune's stood out the most:

"My name is Jaune, not Yang!" Jaune said, arms raised, offended "How do I even look like a girl?"

"You don't" Sun chuckled "I was messing with you. On second thought, you do look like you have a case of the bedheads..."

"..." Jaune didn't even bother with a response.

"Why are you here, anyway?" Blake asked Sun after introductions.

"Just passing through, really." Sun shrugged "How about you? Never thought I'd see you at a beach"

"I'm on vacation with my friends," Blake said. "Where are yours?"

"Ouch, that hurt." Sun mocked an expression of pain on his face.

"I was just asking." Blake said stoically.

"They're somewhere around here, I think," Sun turned around, waving. "See you around!"

With that, Sun left. Weiss noticed his tail and stared at it.

"Why are you looking at his butt, Weiss?" Yang sent her a funny look.

"I was not!" Weiss defended.

"Sure, Weiss," Yang teased her "You think he's hot, don't you?"

"You little-" Weiss clenched her fists.

"C'mon Weiss," Yang laughed. "You can't say he's not good-looking though, right?"

For the rest of the day, every look Weiss sent the blonde would be a glare.


	10. July 21st (Treasure Hunt Part 1)

Author's Note: I'm going to be on vacation next week, so I won't be updating for a while, so please bear with me. This is also a team RWBY only chapter, so don't be too angry that team JNPR isn't there. Review your opinions on the story too!

Disclaimer: I still don't own RWBY.

* * *

The door to team RWBY's dorm creaked open in the middle of the night, a figure creeping into the dorm. It was walking around, searching for a good spot to put a piece of paper. Little did they know that they had woken up a certain Faunus. Blake opened her eyes, seeing the figure immediately in the dark. Panic sprung in to her heart, but she immediately calmed herself down. The stranger didn't notice her yet, so as long as she stayed quiet, she'd be okay. She got ready to attack, but her ears twitched in confusion once she recognized the silhouette. She knew enough to know that they meant no harm. They set down a piece of paper on the floor between the bunks and quietly made their way out of the room.

Blake silently got out of bed, kneeling down and picking up the paper, examining it. It was a map with dotted lines leading to a star. 'I better show the team when they wake up' Blake thought. She got back into bed, putting the map under her pillow. 'I wonder what it's for...' Her thoughts faded in to blackness as she drifted off into slumber.

* * *

When all members of the team had woken up, Blake had told them of a mysterious object she'd discovered, but quickly said that perhaps it was best that she show them after they'd cleared the rest of their drowsiness out of their head, and when they got rid of their hunger. Of course, it took a bit of effort to convince Yang, but she decided to go along with the decision.

Once they reached their room, it was 9:30 in the morning and all of team RWBY was alert, dressed for the day and had breakfast in their stomachs. "What did you have to show us?" Ruby asked Blake curiously, head tilted to the side. Blake was making her way to her own bed.

"I found this," Blake took the map out from under her pillow. "When I woke up in the middle of the night."

"Let me see!" Yang snatched the map out of Blake's hands, completely ignorant of the angry frown from the Faunus. Ruby and Weiss leaned in to see what was on the sheet.

"What do you make of it?" Weiss asked Yang, looking at the blonde.

"We know it's a map." Yang said blankly.

"Ooh! It might be a treasure map!" Ruby exclaimed happily, grinning.

"Huh?" Weiss squinted at the map in confusion, unable to find what Ruby somehow deciphered as 'treasure'.

"Don't you see it?" Ruby put her finger on the dotted lines in the map. "The broken lines are directions for where you need to go, and the star is the treasure!"

A few moments of silence passed, various thoughts running through each persons mind, mainly of what treasure they would find, and thoughts on the person that gave them the map. Was it filled with weapon supplies? Dust and lien? Books? Food?

Yang had had enough of the silence, and of thoughts running around as to what they would find. Deciding it was best to just start now, she broke the silence. "Are we gonna find this treasure or what?" Her tone was impatient as she marched to the door. Opening it, she motioned for the rest of the team to follow her. "C'mon! It might be valuable!"

"Coming!" Ruby exclaimed, following her sister out the door. Blake and Weiss looked at each other. A silent agreement went between them as they shrugged in unison, following their leader and her sister out of the room.

"Who would do this...?" Weiss muttered, looking to Blake for any possible answers. The Faunus frowned, and hastily decided that she'd stay quiet about the identity of said stranger.

"I'm not sure."

* * *

"So, where do we need to go?" Ruby asked, looking at the map in Yang's hand once they were in the courtyard.

"Well, it says we have to go through the downtown area...- hey!" Yang said as Weiss took the map from her.

"I will lead, thank you very much." Weiss said haughtily, walking ahead.

"Weiss!" Ruby called "Wait for us!"

"The treasure - whatever it is - isn't just for you, Weiss, you know that, right?" Blake narrowed her eyes at Weiss as they caught up with her.

"I never said it was mine," Weiss frowned at her teammate "Why would you assume that?"

"Because I know how you are," Blake said impassively "You just seem like that kind of person."

"Hey!" Weiss rounded on her, hands on hips to make it clear that she was offended by the statement. "I can be nice when I want to be!"

"Do you ever want to be nice?" Blake argued, arms crossed as one of her eyebrows raised in skepticism.

A sense of deja vu washed over Ruby and Yang as they stayed away from the argument, caught up in mixed feelings as if they were stuck in the middle. They didn't know what to do, so, ignoring the fact that the last time the two argued Blake had run away, they left the heiress and Faunus to resolve the situation themselves.

"... I try my best." Weiss muttered, Blake rolling her eyes as the heiress sighed. The sisters let out a breath of relief as their eyes were set back to looking straight ahead as they neared downtown.

"So..." Ruby said nervously, trying to restart a conversation. "What do you guys think the treasure is?"

"It could be anything, really," Yang shrugged "I just hope it's worth something."

"You don't have to be so shallow," Weiss scolded her, turning right at a corner. "Something doesn't have to be worth a lot of money to be valuable." There was a sudden absence of footsteps behind her. Looking behind her in confusion, she saw her teammates staring at her in awe. Weiss suddenly felt very insecure. "What? Why are you looking at me like that?"

"I never thought you'd say something so... wise." Ruby blinked in wonder.

"Don't you mean... Weiss?" Yang laughed at her own pun. Her team sent her a disapproving look.

Glad that she'd gained a small amount of respect, she looked forward, smiling. "I have my moments." Weiss said somewhat proudly.

Since downtown was so big, it took them a few hours on foot to find the location that the star represented. By the time they got there, it was late afternoon.

"My feet are so sore..." Ruby whined.

"All of our feet are sore, Ruby." Blake sighed.

"This is it, guys." Weiss said expectantly as they reached an alleyway. Immediately, the air was filled with relieved groans, Ruby deciding to just plop down on the ground.

"You sure?" Yang asked, looking in the alley suspiciously.

"We're standing right where the star would be." Weiss pointed out, although she was walking around in circles.

"But... There's not much here." Ruby pointed out, leaning from the ground, also wanting to see what was inside.

"Why don't we just search the place?" Yang suggested "There's gotta be treasure here somewhere, right?" Although most of the team agreed, Ruby let out a high-pitched whine and lazily pushed herself up to the ground, strangers stopping to stare.

"Oops..."

And so they searched, but only for fifteen minutes. The alley wasn't very spacious, after all.

"Where the heck could it be?!" Yang growled in frustration, throwing her hands in the air.

"Calm down, I don't think it's here." Blake said, getting up from her crouching position. Weiss looked at her, brows furrowed.

"But this is where the star is! I'm sure of it!" The heiress said, tossing aside a trash bag to see if the object of interest was possibly under it.

"We should head back to Beacon, before dinner starts without us." Ruby said. "We came this far, but we could always look another time..." There were nods of agreement as Yang and Blake looked towards Weiss, who turned away.

It took a few minutes of patience for the rest of the team. With a huff, the heiress relented to her leaders will. "Fine, we'll come back tomorrow."


	11. July 22nd (Treasure Hunt Part 2)

Author's Note: I'm trying to get as much of the story as I can before I go on that vacation. Hope you enjoy this chapter! Reviews appreciated!

Disclaimer: I don't own RWBY, Roosterteeth owns it.

* * *

As Weiss had proposed, Team RWBY was back in the alleyway the next day. They searched through the alley once more, continuing from where they had stopped the previous day. Once again, it yielded no results, even after double-checking spots where they had already looked through.

"This is hopeless!" Weiss exclaimed in frustration, throwing her hands up into the air. "We're never going to find the treasure!"

"We'll find it Weiss, I'm sure of it," Ruby tried to calm her partner down with a smile on her face. "You have to believe!"

Seven minutes was how long Weiss believed before she had lost all ounces of hope. Again.

With a sigh of defeat, Weiss shook her head. "That's it, we're getting help." She took out her scroll and went in to her contacts list, before selecting one of them. She pressed the call button, and awaited for an answer.

"Who're you calling?" Yang asked, looking over Weiss's shoulder to see whose icon was on screen.

"Pyrrha," Weiss said as the redhead picked up.

"Weiss? What's the problem?" Pyrrha blinked in confusion, head tilted to the side. "Did you lose your necklace again?"

"Hi, Weiss!" Nora appeared within the scroll's little camera's view. She was grinning, of course, but after taking a look on the video screen, her face shifted to a look of curiosity. "Why is there a dark wall behind you?"

"My team and I-" Weiss started before Yang yanked her scroll out of her hands.

"We're in the alleyway next to the grocery store," Yang interrupted them. "We're looking for treasure!"

"Ooh! Treasure! Let's go, Pyrrha!" Nora grinned, excited at the thought of treasure.

"We'll be right there," Pyrrha nodded, hanging up.

Weiss took her scroll back and glared at Yang. "Why did you take it from me?!"

"I knew you were going to give a long explanation about why we're here, so I gave them the shorter version." Yang explained, shrugging.

"What are you saying?" Weiss asked slowly, her tone edgy and her eyes narrowed as she grew suspicious

'Don't provoke, don't provoke,' Yang thought, doing the shifty eyes as Weiss looked at her expectantly. 'What to say...? Something... smart.'

"Well... you, uh, explain things in great detail. Yeah! That's it!" Yang said proudly, grinning. 'Good job, Yang! No tantrum or excessive scolding!' She thought happily to herself.

"What are you grinning about?" Weiss asked.

"Nothing..." Yang's grin faltered.

A staring contest was then underway, and it looked like it wasn't going anywhere. Blake leaned towards Ruby, who mirrored her movement, ears open. "Was this usually how me and Weiss argued?" Blake whispered. Ruby took a moment to think, frowning, before she shrugged.

"Nah, you two were a lot more violent."

"We're here!" A familiar male voice rang out.

The girls turned their heads and saw Jaune waving at them with his team behind him.

"So, you're looking for treasure and have no idea where it is?" Pyrrha clarified with Yang.

"We kind of know, but..." Ruby trailed off, showing the other team the map, pointing at the star. "We're right where it says the treasure is. We've searched since yesterday, and we don't see anything valuable in this alley."

"Not all treasure is valuable," Pyrrha said. Weiss immediately gave Yang a triumphant 'I told you so' look, but either the blonde didn't notice, or she chose to ignore the heiress.

"Are you sure you looked everywhere?" Nora asked, zooming around the alley and looking through various piles of garbage with speed that was rivaled by no one except Ruby.

"Positive," Weiss nodded. The sound of trash moving around prompted the team to look towards the source.

"Ren? What are you doing?" Blake asked as Ren moved his arm around in the trash can with a very discontented grimace on his face. "We already looked in that trash can."

"But did you search it?" Ren's hand found a smooth handle. Grasping it, he pulled out a coffee mug with a star on it.

Ruby gasped. "That's the same star as the one on the map!"

"Looks like I found your treasure," Ren said, handing the mug to Blake. As soon as it left his hands, Ren started to wipe off all the gunk and bits of trash that had stuck to his sleeve.

"Wait..." Blake's eyes narrowed as her examination of the seemingly regular mug yielded strange results. "This says 'Beacon Academy' on it."

"Really?" Jaune blinked.

"We should take this to Ozpin," Pyrrha suggested. "He might know something about this."

* * *

Ozpin was sitting at his desk, twirling a pen between his fingers. He was waiting for team RWBY to arrive with his coffee mug he had Glynda oh so cleverly hide in the bottom of a trash can. Truth be told, it was all for fun. Being the headmaster of a school came with its merits, but it also had its cons, such as a lack of entertainment. So who else to throw all his troubles on to but his own students? Besides, it's not like team RWBY had plans, right?

Right?

The headmaster frowned. Even if they did...It's not like it'd be too much trouble. After all, with work slowly beginning to pile, he'd need some sort of stress relief.

"Ozpin?"

The sound of Pyrrha's voice surprised him. He knew that team RWBY was there, and they'd found the mug, but he didn't expect them to come with help. Did Glynda really hide the mug that well?

"Yes, come in," Ozpin said calmly. Team RWBY and JNPR walked in, and as always, stared in awe at the clockwork that was right above them. That was one thing they'd never get used to.

"Do you know anything about this?" Blake asked, holding up the coffee mug he'd been waiting for.

"Yes, of course I do," Ozpin nodded, the corner of his lips slowly rising. "I sent team RWBY to get it. I didn't expect you to have help, though."

"Huh?" The teens exclaimed, confused.

"So this was all a joke?" Weiss crossed her arms, miffed with the unexpected answer. "You set us up?"

The headmaster looked as if he were contemplating the question, before answering. "Yes, it was." Ozpin nodded again.

"Why?" Ruby asked, her utter confusion completely visible on her face.

"It was all for fun," Ozpin had a full smile on his face now. "You aren't the only ones who can have fun on break, you know."

"For your own enjoyment?" Nora asked, frowning as various thoughts ran through her mind. Giving a rather loud 'Oooh!', she grinned. "I would do the same thing!"

"So, uh..." Blake said nervously, handing the mug to him. "Do you want this back, or...?"

"Oh, you can keep it if you like," Ozpin said. "If you don't want it, I'll gladly take it."

A beat of silence passed by as the teams looked at each other, a rapid, inaudible conversation passing between them.

"You keep it," Yang finally answered.

"Very well," With another smile, Ozpin walked out of the room to wash the mug.

"I can't believe it...!" Weiss muttered angrily. "How could he do that?"

"Well, he just wanted his fun for the break, I guess," Pyrrha shrugged. "I have nothing against it, personally."

"How could you not?" Weiss argued. "He sent us on a wild goose chase."

"Not really," Ruby said "We found something at least."

"At least it was kind of fun!" Nora grinned, looking on the bright side. "Besides, we have fun all the time! It's only fair that the headmaster gets in on some of it, right?"

Everyone except Weiss gave their own signs of agreement. Once again, the heiress relented to the will of her friends. "It was rather fun for a bit..." Weiss sighed. "Very well, I suppose I can let it go."

There were small, inaudible mutters that slowly rose in volume and pitch. Blake, being the only one that could fully discern them, covered her ears, groaning. People looked at her, confused. Then, Yang and Nora burst out from the middle of the group, yelling, "LET IT GOOO! CAN'T HOLD IT BACK ANYMOOORE!"

Everyone immediately shouted for them to stop.


	12. July 23rd

Author's Note: I'm back from my vacation! Hope you didn't forget about this story! Thank you to the people who favourited, followed and reviewed. Enjoy!

Disclaimer: Roosterteeth owns RWBY, not me.

* * *

To say that it was hot outside would be an understatement. Those that had experienced Yang's heat when she was angered would feel even worse just by standing outside in the burning sun. Beacon was even closed down, and everyone was advised not to leave the building. This, of course, irritated many students, completely destroying plans that many have made. Fortunately for Team RWBY and JNPR, they had no special activities to do outside today, so it didn't affect them. Said teams were staying in team RWBY's dorm for the day.

"So, what do you want to play?" Ruby asked everyone, sitting on her bed cross-legged.

Weiss frowned. "Play?" There were hints of curiosity and confusion at her team leaders question. "You mean... play games?"

"Yep. There's nothing else to do," Ruby said, swaying from side to side.

"Ooh! I know what we can play!" Nora yelled excitedly from her spot on Yang's bed, her hand shooting up as if she were in class.

"What's your idea?" Pyrrha, who was seated on the floor, asked.

"We could play The Mummy!" Nora grinned.

"That doesn't sound too good..." Jaune said warily, already thinking of many ideas of what the spooky-sounding game could be.

"Don't worry, it's harmless!" Nora said. "It's pretty simple. You get into teams of 2, each team has a roll of toilet paper. One person has to use the other to make a mummy using a whole roll. 2 teams win, the one who makes the mummy fastest and the one who makes the most creative one"

"But that's wasteful!" Weiss frowned in disbelief. "We're using 4 rolls of toilet paper for fun! We'll need it someday!"

"Weiss, I think we have a big stock of toilet paper," Blake looked up from her book at Weiss, an amused expression on her face. Even for the heiress, the Faunus found it hard to believe that Weiss would get so worked up over something as trivial as toilet paper. "Lots of people go here, remember?"

"She has a point," Pyrrha said thoughtfully. "I doubt 4 rolls would make much of a difference."

With a sense of deja vu, Weiss sighed, bowing to the will of her friends. "Alright, fine. Let's get started."

* * *

The teams were Nora and Weiss, Blake and Pyrrha, Ren and Yang, and Ruby and Jaune. Nora set a timer for 2 minutes and they got started, wasting no time at all. The last two teams were competing for being the fastest.

"Hey, Ruby?" Jaune asked nervously as Ruby picked up a roll of toilet paper. "Can you not use your Semblance?"

"Not to worry, Jaune," Ruby said peppily, wrapping his upper body quickly. "I'm not a cheater!" She grinned.

"You'd better not be!" Yang exclaimed, running in circles around Ren to wrap him up faster, who kept a hilariously emotionless and stoic face on.

* * *

The other two teams were competing for creativity.

"Gah! Don't choke me, you dunce!" Weiss's slightly muffled voice scolded, as her head was already wrapped.

"Sorry! I need to do your neck so it doesn't break off, though," Nora apologized quickly, wrapping the heiress's shoulders. "Could you put your hands behind your back?"

* * *

"What are you doing?" Blake asked Pyrrha, who was taking an unusual amount of time to wrap behind her back. They were almost finished.

"Making... a bow..." Pyrrha said, her voice straining in focus.

"How much of this do we even have?" Blake questioned, eyebrow raised, but it couldn't be seen under her binds.

"We got the biggest rolls," Pyrrha said, finishing up the bow. "I think they were triple ones."

* * *

The timer beeped loudly, signalling to the players to stop. Ruby and Jaune had finished first a minute before. Ruby, Pyrrha and Nora were judging the Weiss and Blake mummies. Yang couldn't find the strength in her to help because she was tumbling between the bunk beds, dizzy from running in circles for most of the game.

"How did you do that, Nora?" Pyrrha asked her teammate, curious and amazed. "She really looks like she's wearing a dress."

"Yeah, and Weiss looks shorter," Ruby added. Nora giggled, giving no other response.

"Let's look at Blake," Nora changed the subject, walking to Blake. As she did, she couldn't stop herself from giggling even more, if that were possible.

'What's so funny?' Pyrrha thought in confusion, following Nora and Ruby. 'We basically complimented her.'

The Blake mummy looked generally like your average mummy but with a bow on her head and another on her back.

"Ooh! She looks like a present!" Nora said happily, clapping her hands with a smile on her face.

"Yeah, I love the big bow on her back!" Ruby complimented, smiling too.

"This is Blake?" Yang said from beside Ruby, her balance back to normal. "Good job, Pyrrha. It looks purrrrfect!" Her friends groaned, Blake making sure to let the others hear her through the toilet paper.

"Who won?" Ruby asked.

"I think Weiss won, to be honest," Pyrrha shrugged.

"Me too," Ruby agreed. Yang nodded.

"Nora, why were you laughing before?" Jaune asked, sitting on Weiss's bed without the toilet paper, along with Ren.

"Because Weiss is squatting!" Nora exclaimed, ripping the toilet paper off of Weiss before she could move.

Weiss was indeed squatting, her pose resembling that of a sumo wrestler, hands behind her back. Her face was in panic when she realized she could see her friends desperately trying to hold back laughter. Even Blake, who had removed the toilet paper covering her eyes, was sniggering.

Yang was, of course, the first one to give in to temptation. Soon enough, she was guffawing, no longer caring about what reprimanding the heiress might give her.

"What's so funny?" Weiss straightened up, crossed her arms, and glared at them, although most of her attention was directed at the blonde.

"Pffft... nothing," Ruby laughed.

"I never thought I'd see you in such a position," Blake smiled as she tore the toilet paper off of herself.

"I was trying to win," Weiss said angrily, turning her nose up and looking away. "That position was uncomfortable anyway."

"I got a picture..." Pyrrha mumbled shyly, holding up her Scroll while grinning.

"Seriously?" Jaune's eyes lit up as he jogged over to Pyrrha. He took the Scroll from her and looked at the picture. When he saw it, he laughed.

"You did not!" Yang shouted in disbelief and excitement, running over to see the picture. She didn't even try to conceal her glee. Collapsing to the floor laughing, tears of mirth streamed down her face.

"Pyrrha!" Weiss yelled, irritated. She stomped over to Jaune, took the Scroll from him and shoved it into Pyrrha's face. "How could you?!"

"Nice one, Pyrrha," Ruby made sure to breathe as she stopped laughing. Any more, and she might have suffocated herself. "So, what do we play next?"

"Musical chairs!" Nora grinned, hand shooting up again.

"Alright..." Pyrrha took back her Scroll and closed it, putting it away. "But there's only two chairs in the room."

Her arms still crossed, Weiss marched haughtily over to her bed and sat down, making it clear that she'd be holding a grudge against them all for acting the way they did. "I'm not playing, so you only need four more chairs."

"Where do we get more chairs?" Jaune asked.

"Are there any in your dorm?" Ruby asked Jaune, who facepalmed.

"I did not think of that," Jaune said, walking out the door. "I'll get them."

It didn't take very long for Jaune to return with a stack of four chairs, all precariously positioned and tipping at one side. "A little help?" He called out.

"Perfect! Let's set them up," Yang grabbed the whole pile and dumped them on to the floor. Acting as if the unceremonious action she'd just commited never happened, she quickly set up the chairs facing outward in a circle. "Weiss, music!"

Taking out her scroll, Weiss put on some music and the players walked around the chairs. She paused the music and everyone sat down except for Jaune.

"Huh? How'd I lose?" Jaune said to himself as he sat next to Weiss, visibly saddened. But he brightened just as fast, and saw another attempt to flirt with the heiress. Trying his best to give her a flirtatious look as Weiss started the music, he greeted her. "Hey, Snow Angel."

"... " Weiss seemed to have ignored him, the blonde looking away in defeat. "...Hey, Jaune," Weiss gave him a small smile, stopping the music. Nora panicked, everyone was sitting down except for her. She sat on the chair that was taken away.

"I made it!" Nora cheered.

"Nora, that chair was taken away," Ren said, staring at her with a blank face.

"Aww..." Nora's shoulders slumped.

Another chair was taken away and the music started again. When it stopped, Blake was the one left standing.

"Shoot," Blake went to sit on her bed.

Ren and Ruby were out after two more rounds, only Yang and Pyrrha were left.

They were standing on each side of the chair between them, a few feet away from it. Yang narrowed her eyes at Pyrrha like a cowboy in a showdown, Pyrrha playing along and glared back. It was tense, yet fun between the remaining challengers.

When the music started, they were slowly sidestepping, eyes locked on nothing but the other person. This went for a bit longer than the other rounds, the audience shaking to see who the winner would be.

The music suddenly stopped. The competitors dashed to get to the chair first, but only one succeeded. It was none other than Pyrrha Nikos.

"Yes! I won!" Pyrrha jumped out of the chair in excitement. Yang dropped to her knees and watched her opponent celebrate, frowning in disbelief and sorrow.

"I lost..." Yang mumbled sadly.

"Don't worry, Yang!" Ruby went to her sister and grinned at her. "I know you like winning a lot, and there's always next time."

"But Ruuuubyyy..." Yang whined.

"Come on, don't be a sore loser!" Ruby whined back, her attempt at cheering her sister up seeming to have worked.

"... Okay," Yang sighed in defeat.

'I'll let you win this one, Pyrrha,' Yang thought. 'But next time...I shall be victorious!' Already, dark thoughts were brewing in the prankster's mind on how to get back at the victorious redhead.


	13. July 24th (Gaming Part 1 of 3)

Disclaimer: I do not own RWBY.

* * *

As the leader of Team RWBY woke up and looked out her window, the sky looked rather gloomy and dark. It was the complete opposite of the hot day they had spent not too long ago. After she changed her clothes, she heard thunder booming in the sky and the pouring of rain.

The sounds and sights made her head droop in sadness. 'This is going to be a long day...' With no chance of going outside(again), she picked up a weapons magazine, intending to read as much as she could before breakfast started. Climbing on to her bed without taking her glued eyes off of the magazine, she lied back, legs dangling over the edge, and waited. The others, of course, noticed this unusually quiet behavior from their leader.

"Are you reading another weapons magazine?" Weiss, sitting on her own bed, looked up at what she could see of the occupied reaper.

"Yep!" Ruby said happily. A few more turns of pages, and then she gasped.

"What is it?" Yang, who was playing games on her scroll, asked, glancing away to look at Ruby.

"I didn't know it was possible..." Ruby said in awe, reading the description of a weapon.

"What?" Weiss asked, making it clear that the suspense was making her irritated.

"It's a gun..." Ruby said excitedly.

"And...?" Blake asked nonchalantly as she looked over the top of her book at Ruby. Though she sounded monotone, she was intrigued. From what she had seen, a 'regular' gun wouldn't make Ruby THIS happy.

"It also turns into a gun!" Ruby squealed in delight. "It looks so cool! I really want to see one in real life!"

"A gun-gun?" Yang asked, smirking at the thought. "Sounds pretty cool."

With a roll of the eyes, Weiss casually looked at the time on her Scroll and gasped. "Guys, we're late for breakfast!"

* * *

It was after the end of breakfast that they would all finally find their entertainment for the day In team RWBY's dorm, the four girls were doing silent activities, listening to the pitter-patter of the rain and the occasional roll of thunder, a flash of lightning accompanying it.

Ruby was reading a different weapons magazine with a smile on her face, marvelling at all the cool weapons she would love to 'meet'. Weiss was counting the vials of Dust she had, wanting to know if she had enough of not. Being the organizational heiress she was, she required a new delivery of Dust if she had less than half of her maximum capacity. Blake was reading a 700 paged book she would probably finish if she read non-stop for three or four days. Yang was throwing a ball toward the ceiling and catching it repeatedly, a bored expression on her face.

They heard a soft knock in their door, breaking the silence. Whoever it was clearly didn't wait for an answer as the door opened, revealing Nora and all her happy glory practically shining out of the bounce in her step and her smile.

"Hi, guys!" Nora exclaimed. Ruby returned the smile that the Valkyrie had, although with much less enthusiasm.

"Hey, Nora." Yang sighed in relief. Finally, someone that wants to talk! "What brings you here?"

"I was walking through the halls looking for an idea of something to do," Nora said, beaming. "Guess what I found?"

"Um... a baby sloth?" Ruby guessed. From the look on Nora's face, it had to be a sloth, right? Supposedly, only those could be enough to make her smile so much.

"Nope!" Nora shook her head, still beaming. "I found a room!"

Nobody responded for a short while, and if anyone was surprised at the vague and simple answer, they did an incredibly good job at hiding it.

"There are rooms all over Beacon," Weiss groaned, bringing her palm to her forehead. "What could be so special about this one?"

"You'll see!" Nora grinned, pulling Weiss off her bed. Ignoring her complaints, she sped out the door. "Follow me! Hey, I rhymed!"

* * *

Nora decided to(literally, somehow,)drag her team along for the ride with team RWBY. They had finally(and painfully)skidded to a stop near a door half their size on the other side of Beacon.

"Nora?" Ren sighed. "Do you even know where this door leads?"

"Nope," Nora said, putting her hand on the doorknob, turning it. "I didn't want to explore alone, so I brought you guys!"

Nora opened the door, got on all fours and crawled inside. The remaining teens looked at each other, and everyone stared at Pyrrha. With an understanding smile, she knelt down towards the door.

"Nora!" Pyrrha called into the darkness that lied beyond the door. "Are you alright?"

"Yeah!" Nora's echoing voice called back to them. "Come on, guys! This is really cool, you have to see this!"

"We're coming!" Ruby called into the darkness. "Weiss, you go first." She gestured to the mini-door.

The grumbling Weiss crawled through the mini-door and shrieked.

"What happened?" Pyrrha asked in concern, quickly crawling in after the heiress.

"N-nothing, just a spider, that's all," Weiss dismissed it and kept crawling.

When they reached the end of the tunnel-like hallway, they were met with a sight that blew them away.

"What is this?" Weiss said in awe as she crawled into the room and stood up.

"I'm not sure, but it does look nice," Pyrrha cane out next, smiling thoughtfully.

"Whoa, I didn't expect this!" Jaune said in wonder, eyes wide.

"Why would anyone want to hide this room?!" Ruby exclaimed, flabbergasted, throwing her hands up in the air.

They were in a modern-looking den. There were three gaming systems, all with four controllers, hooked up to two flat-screen TVs. In front of the TVs were two sectional couches connected to each other, making a 'U' shape. The floor was covered with dark blue carpeting, and the walls were painted dark green.

"Is this like a retreat?" Blake asked curiously.

"Yeah, for the staff," Yang said jokingly, sitting on the big couch.

"Come on, Yang," Weiss scoffed, hands on hips. "Are we that hard to handle?" Nobody bothered to give the ice queen a response.

"Which system do we use?" Nora asked excitedly, running over to the three systems.

"Are you sure that's a good idea?" Blake raised a brow at Nora. "It's obvious that the staff use this room. Should we be using their stuff without permission?"

"We'll be just fine, Blake," Yang waved her hand dismissively at the Faunus. "They won't find out."

"What if they do?" Weiss asked suspiciously.

"They shouldn't be too mad unless we wreck their stuff," Yang smirked, turning around to face them. "Now, pick a system."

"What are the options?" Pyrrha asked, looking at Nora.

"There's a Wii, Playstation 3 and an Xbox 360," Nora counted them off on her fingers.

"I want to play the Wii!" Ruby exclaimed happily, grinning.

"What games do we have?" Jaune asked, walking over to take a look at their selections.

"Ooh! There's Mario Kart Wii!" Nora said triumphantly, holding up the game case.

"Let's play it!" Ruby grabbed the nearest Wii remote. Realizing the situation that was about to follow, she quickly called out, "I call player 1!"

"Player 2!" Yang immediately yelped, holding up another controller.

"Player 3!" Jaune took the third controller.

Nora was about to grab the last controller, but Pyrrha beat her to it.

"Aww..." Nora whined. She put in Mario Kart Wii and turned on the first TV. The rest of the teams watched from the couch, and Nora joined them, a noticeable slump in her walk.

Ruby selected Mario Kart from the menu and started a 4 player game. They were selecting their characters.

"I choose Daisy!" Yang exclaimed, choosing Daisy. "Yeah, Daisy!" her character exclaimed from the TV. "She even sounds like me..." Yang's heart melted.

"I'm choosing the green dinosaur-" Jaune said, choosing Yoshi. "-Yoshi."

"Oh, she's pretty," Ruby said happily, selecting Rosalina.

They heard a loud roar coming from the television, making them jump.

"Who did you even choose?!" Yang asked Pyrrha fearfully.

"Dry Bowser..." Pyrrha trailed off.

They selected their Karts/Bikes. Jaune had the Mach Bike, Ruby had the Spear, Pyrrha the Standard Kart L, and Yang the Classic Dragster. The course they selected was Moonview Highway.

"Is this moving traffic?!" Yang panicked as the race started. "I'm not good with traffic!"

"Just don't hit a car and you'll be fine!" Ruby advised. Her tongue was poking out from the side of her mouth as she weaved through the traffic.

By the end of the first lap, Ruby was in 10th place, Pyrrha in 8th, Yang in 5th and Jaune in 3rd.

"How are you in third place?" Pyrrha asked Jaune, driving through an item box.

"I can hit everyone with items," Jaune smirked as he hit Yang, who was behind him, with a green shell.

"Don't hit me!" Yang yelled in frustration.

At the end of the race, a happy Jaune placed 3rd, a disappointed Yang placed 4th, Pyrrha placed 6th and a dejected Ruby placed 9th.

"Your turn," Ruby said, handing the controller to Weiss before going over to the couch to slump like Nora.

Weiss, Blake, Ren and Nora were playing. Weiss had Baby Peach with the Quacker, Blake had Dry Bones with the Cheep Cheep Charger, Nora had Birdo with the Sneakster and Ren had Bowser Jr with the Daytripper. They chose Rainbow Road.

It was when they finally saw the course that they had doubts. "I think we made a mistake..." Weiss stared at the preview of the map in fear.

The race started and the players didn't expect the sudden drop in the course.

"Aaaaahhh!" Weiss exclaimed in surprise.

"No! No! No!" Nora didn't realize what was happening, and did nothing but yell in shock as well, swerving left and right.

Blake got an item box and got three red shells. She smirked to herself, throwing one at Ren, who fell off.

"What?! You're joking," Ren frowned at the screaming Bowser Jr, who was consumed in flames.

The skeleton made it to the part with two giant holes in the rainbow course. Weiss was just ahead of her, and she wasn't going to waste her next shell. Blake threw the red shell, hitting Weiss and making her fall through a hole.

"Stop making us fall off!" Weiss growled in frustration as her character came back onto the course.

By the middle of the third lap, Nora had placed 1st, Blake had placed 2nd, Weiss placed 6th and Ren placed 8th.

Having used her sets of items wisely, Blake was on her last red shell. Nora was in front of her, but not too close. She threw her last red shell at Nora, causing her to flip over, but not fall off.

"Hey!" Nora exclaimed in anger, continuing to race.

Blake simply laughed at her. Laughed. Not a good-hearted one either, an evil one. One that held no regrets, only amusement for the malice and pain that she'd caused.

'I love this game.' Blake thought to herself, smirking. 'It's so competitive, I love it.'

Blake got her karma soon, though. It was the worst thing that could ever happen when in first place. Ren threw the dreaded thing at her without mercy. Blake was right in front of the finish line, when she got hit by a blue shell.

"NO!" Blake yelled at the TV in fury as she flipped over. Nora passed her and the Faunus ended up in 2nd.

"I'm queen of the castle! I'm queen of the castle!" Nora cheered, passing the finish line. Blake's head snapped in Ren's direction and she glared at him furiously, all sorts of angry thoughts running through her mind, damning him to the high heavens.

"We should come back tomorrow!" Ruby suggested, smiling. They all agreed.

'Never again.' Blake thought, enraged as she glanced at Ren. 'Will I forgive this guy.'

The stoic boy seemed to take notice, and only gave an infuriating sly smile in response.

"Hey look! Blake's ears are curling!" Yang called, her hand already reaching towards the cat set of ears.

"NO, YANG!"


	14. July 25th (Gaming Part 2 of 3)

Disclaimer: I don't own RWBY.

* * *

As promised, Team RWBY and JNPR were back in the gaming room and most of them were hyped, some shaking in anticipation as they were choosing a game to play.

"Are there any interesting-looking Wii games, Nora?" Pyrrha asked from her seat on the couch.

"There aren't many four-player ones here..." Nora trailed off, looking through the stock of games with Ruby, who was using her semblance to skim through the games, leaving a small pile next to her.

"I found one!" Ruby held up a game called Kirby's Return to Dream Land. "It looks cute, especially that puffball!" Ruby put the game disc in the Wii.

Yang grabbed the Wii remote that was beside her. "Player 1!" She announced.

Blake silently took another Wii remote, as did Ren. Jaune took one as well.

Yang selected the game from the menu and they got started on an already used file. Being player 1, Yang's default character was Kirby. Blake chose Meta Knight, and Jaune and Ren were Yellow and Red Kirby's.

"Hey, Ruby," Yang nudged her sister, pointing at the screen. "There's a stage called Cookie Country."

It took less than a second for her eyes to widen, showing off her famous childish but excited look. "Ooh!" Ruby squealed. "Are there cookies there?!"

"Let's find out," Yang selected Cookie Country as Ruby was practically shivering with excitement.

To her disappointment, she couldn't find any of them.

Going through the first stage didn't take too much time, even though they had yet to learn the controls. Once they fully understood the use of each button, they went straight to the boss door.

"Ooh, there's a fire power up," Yang smirked, getting the Fire Copy Ability. "Get your copy abilities!" She said to Ren and Jaune.

After a moment of thinking and testing, Ren took the Beam ability and Jaune decided on Cutter. As the game characters jumped down to the ground, a cutscene began.

"That jester hat looks silly," Nora commented on Ren's Kirby's hat.

"Wait, it that a tree?" Jaune exclaimed in confusion.

"With a face?" Yang yelled, making a face at the odd tree. It had oval shaped holes for the eyes and mouth with a wooden nose.

"Whispy Woods?" Blake questioned, her eyes on the name and health bar. "That's a weird name."

"And... Attack!" Yang happily shouted, wasting no time in blowing fire onto the tree.

The three Kirbies and Meta Knight attacked Whispy Woods, quickly bringing its health to the half point. By that time, the tree had grown bigger and, to Jaune's surprise and everyone else's amusement, ate Jaune's Kirby.

"No! Don't eat me!" Jaune exclaimed desperately, shaking the Wii remote to be freed as those spectating the game laughed. Whispy Woods spat him out, and Jaune gave a whoop of victory...

...right before he died by a Waddle Dee dropping down on him.

"OH, C'MON!"

They quickly defeated Whispy Woods and the tree shrunk, a very visible tear on its face. Yang obtained a feathery object coloured grey. Their characters did a victory dance, a happy tune playing in the background.

"Aww... They're dancing!" Yang grinned. "That's so cute..."

"We're playing next!" Ruby exclaimed, taking the Wii remote from Blake. Not even minding the sudden swipe, she walked back to the couch and took Ruby's spot.

Nora, Weiss and Pyrrha were the Kirbies and Ruby was Meta Knight. They went straight to the boss in Raisin Ruins, a desert stage. Pyrrha was Whip Kirby and Nora and Weiss were Water Kirbies.

"Oh my gosh, is this a ghost?!" Nora exclaimed in fright as two floating hands picked up a turban.

"It's a genie, you dunce," Weiss scoffed, her fingers a blur as she begun her attack.

"Pffft... What kind of name is Mr. Dooter?" Ruby laughed as Meta Knight slashed at the boss.

"I know, Dooter isn't even a word," Pyrrha smirked as Mr. Dooter juggled skulls and hurled them at the players.

"Why is he spinning around?" Weiss asked suspiciously, raising a brow. "If someone attacks you, you don't just jump and spin around."

"He looks happy, though," Nora's tongue hung out the corner of her mouth as the boss went into the second phase.

"He doesn't look happy anymore..." Ruby's eyes narrowed and her brows furrowed in suspicion as Mr. Dooter jumped and spun higher into the air, trying to squish them in the process.

"Hey, he can punch!" Yang grinned as the genie punched Pyrrha and Weiss. "I like this guy!"

"I don't! He's hitting us, Yang!" Pyrrha pointed out, glaring at Mr. Dooter as he released bats from his turban.

After Nora dealt the final blow and got a grey wing-looking object, the Kirbies and Meta Knight danced again.

"We just did the robot," Ruby snickered.

Everyone switched places again. Yang, Blake, Jaune and Ren were playing again as the same characters as last time, and they went to a stage called Onion Ocean.

"What kind of name is Onion Ocean?" Jaune questioned as they entered the boss door. "It doesn't sound appealing at all."

"... Is that an umbrella?" Yang asked no one in particular, unimpressed as her eyebrow raised. "Oh well, let's see what it does."

Weiss was surprised that Yang didn't comment when Jaune took the Ice ability, as was Pyrrha when Ren got the Spear ability.

"Fatty Puffer?" Pyrrha raised a questioning eyebrow. "... At least it's fitting."

"Shoot! He hit me!" Jaune panicked, trying to get back his power, the blue star with a snowman on it. He calmed down once he finally regained his ability.

"Stop drifting, Kirby!" Yang growled, her Kirby drifting uncontrollably with his parasol like Mary Poppins. Somehow, it managed to float right on to Blake's Meta Knight, surprising Blake and making Yang laugh.

"Get off my back, Yang!" Blake growled to the brawler, trying to get her off by jumping and shaking.

"Nah, I'll sit here while you attack it," Yang smirked, putting the Wii remote on her lap.

"Get off me or we'll both get hit!" Blake exclaimed in annoyance. Right after she said that, she got hit by the water Fatty Puffer spat at them and died.

"Wait! Don't leave me!" Yang whined, quickly picking up the controller and attacking, sending the pufferfish into its second phase.

Blake came back as King Dedede and jumped out of Fatty Puffer's way as it spun in to a ball and rolled towards them.

"This guy needs help," Ruby said, making a funny face. "He can become twice his weight in seconds!"

As if it was offended by Ruby's comment, the pufferfish suddenly spurted a large amount of water on to the players.

"Fatty Puffer used Hydro Pump!" Yang exclaimed as if she were the announcer in a sports game. "It's super effective!"

Blake hit the pufferfish with her hammer, finally ending its ridiculous attacks, and obtained a grey wing like the one Nora retrieved.

"I want to be King Dedede!" Nora shouted with a grin on her face, rushing over to take Blake's controller, prompting Blake to frown. Why did they always have to take her controller first?

This time, Nora and the three Kirbies went to White Wafers, a snowy stage, and smashed their way to the boss.

"This game makes me hungry," Nora remarked.

"What's the fist one?" Ruby wondered, taking the Copy Ability. "Fighter?"

"Wow, it's like it was made for me," Yang smirked as she noticed Weiss taking the Ninja ability. "Looks like the Ninja one was made for Blake." Blake frowned continued to grow, but this time, it seemed as if she were in thought.

Pyrrha took the Fire Copy Ability and they set off to fight the boss, Goriath.

"He looks like he has a mohawk and a goatie," Nora commented on the snow beast's appearance.

"Ooh! This is a brawler!" Ruby cheered as her Kirby delivered a powerful punch.

"What happened to his arm?!" Weiss gasped as his arm stretched to the other end of the battlefield in an attempt to punch them.

After a while of icicle attacks and Super Saiyan moves, the three Kirbies and Nora defeated Goriath, obtained a part of a starship, and danced. Ren and the Kirbies went to the boss in Nutty Noon next.

"Alright! I'm taking the Yang Copy Ability!" Yang grinned, taking the Fighter ability.

"Yang, it's called Fighter," Jaune corrected her, taking the Cutter ability.

"I'll call it Yang because it suits me, thankyouverymuch!" Yang smirked at Jaune.

Blake took the Whip ability, wearing a little cowboy hat, and jumped on the star, taking them to the next boss, who would be Grand Doomer.

"That was way too easy," Jaune bragged. "Our objective is right there, let's take it!"

Jaune's Cutter Kirby jumped up and took the prize as celebratory music played and his Kirby smiled happily. The happiness quickly faded as Kirby fell flat on his face. A creature gobbled up the prize.

"WHAT?!" All eight teens exclaimed, surprised. Jaune instead screamed, "WHY ME?!"

Grand Doomer flew above them and swooped down on them. The players quickly attacked, Jaune throwing sword-boomerangs at it, Yang punching it, Ren smacking it with Dedede's hammer and Blake whipping it, the cracking of said whip loud. It disappeared and reappeared multiple times before vanishing and hit Yang.

"Hey! You made me drop my ability!" Yang growled at the orange winged creature, eating a red star with a boxing glove on it, becoming 'Yang' Kirby again.

Once Grand Doomer was at half-health, he went into the background and sent a flurry of sludge balls at them. The players dodged the attack. When his health meter was almost empty, it refilled, split into four golden segments with a white star on each. Suddenly, the boss was then a rock with eyes and stars on it. It sent waves of little enemies at them through portals, three at a time.

"I got the glowing one," Blake said, swallowing a glowing enemy, having lost her Whip ability. She then had the Ultra Sword ability, her Kirby wearing an elf hat. She hit it four times and the boss had a sliver of health left. Blake hit Grand Doomer one last time, sending its health to zero, killing it.

The grey mast was collected and Nora and the Kirbies went to Egg Engines, a factory-like stage. The fight against Metal General wasn't very eventful, other than the fact that Nora died and came back as Kirby.

"We're doing the last boss, if you don't mind," Weiss said politely to Yang.

"Alright, play away!" Yang smiled.

The group fought Landia, four small orange dragons in a huddle, next. Nora was Bomb Kirby, Ruby was Cutter, Pyrrha was Ninja and Weiss was Leaf. At the start of the battle, Nora chucked bombs at Landia, which she enjoyed immensely as she was laughing maniacally, and Weiss turned into a bush as the others attacked.

"Weiss! Help us out!" Ruby exclaimed, throwing sword-boomerangs and dodging attacks.

"Yeah!" Nora agreed whole heartedly. "You can't defend yourself forever!"

"I'm waiting for the second phase," Weiss said matter-of-factly. "I want to have full health by then."

As soon as the words left her mouth, Landia entered second phase, and the four dragons separated and attacked with fireballs, sometimes getting into a formation and shooting energy beams. Weiss chickened out and stayed as a bush for the whole battle.

"Weiss!" Pyrrha tried to stay calm, but couldn't keep all of her anger from seeping in to her glare. "You didn't do anything for the whole battle!"

"Um... Oops," Weiss said nervously.

"Wow, Weiss," Yang smirked at her. "Never thought you'd cower away in battle."

"I did not cower!" Weiss defended herself, gripping the Wii remote tightly.

"Whatever you say," Yang shrugged, her smirk unwavering.

If one listened closely, they could hear the sounds of an angry heiress throwing a Wii remote at the blonde bruiser.


	15. July 26th (Gaming Part 3 of 3)

Disclaimer: I don't own RWBY! No matter what you say, I will never be Monty!

* * *

"Alright, let's play some games!" Nora exclaimed excitedly, wasting no time in pouncing on a pile of Wii games. At this point, everyone had grown used to it, now knowing that any attempts to call off her savage attacks were useless.

"Why don't we try the PS3 games for a change?" Blake suggested, making her way to the PS3 game pile.

"Okay!" As sudden and as quick as she sprung on to the first pile, Nora crawled to the clustered PS3 games, plopping herself down next to Blake.

"Is there anything interesting?" Pyrrha asked from the couch.

For barely a second, the Faunus' eyes glanced at a game that caught her interest with just the box art. Blake picked up Tekken Tag Tournament 2, looking at the back with curiosity and a small smile that did not go unnoticed by Yang.

"Blake approves!" Yang yelled cheerily, pumping her fist in to the air. "It must be good! It will be played!" Blake frowned at her disapprovingly, earning little more than a blank stare from the blonde. "What? Put the game in!"

Blake put in the game and picked up a controller. Yang, Pyrrha and Ren also picked up controllers.

"Pick versus mode," Pyrrha said to Blake as she selected versus mode.

Both sides chose Pair Play, Pyrrha and Ren against Blake and Yang. Now on the character select screen, they took their time cycling through each person, looking closely at any particular fighter that caught their eye.

"She looks like a hard hitter," Yang said, choosing a brunette with short hair named Asuka Kazama.

"Is this a wrestler?" Pyrrha questioned, looking at a girl in a wrestler's mask named Jaycee. "Jaycee? Are those supposed to be initials or something?"

"She's a wrestler?" Ruby gasped before squealing. "Pick her, Pyrrha! Pick her!" Pyrrha couldn't find it in her to deny the cute girls boisterous yells(The same couldn'tbe said for Weiss, who angrily shouted for her to quiet down), so she went ahead and picked Jaycee.

Blake chose a female ninja in a fox mask named Kunimitsu and Ren chose a male ninja named Raven. However, they had to choose a stage before the match could start.

"What are those names under the stage names?" Jaune asked, reading some of the names aloud. "Canada? Poland? Finland? What is this?"

"I have no idea," Weiss said, looking at one that had 'Germany' under it. For some reason, she felt a strange...almost prickling sensation at the name. It was as if it called out to her, like an old memory but long forgotten.

"I'm choosing Winter Palace," Blake announced, selecting said stage.

The Winter Castle was a throne room with many windows that were frosted over or broken. One window behind the throne had a flower design on it. The throne itself was plain-looking, in the background and on an elevated surface, not attached to the floor Blake and Pyrrha were standing on. It was dark, but the ice and frost in the room shine brightly. Majestic music played in the stage.

"What do I do?!" Blake exclaimed in confusion.

"Random buttons! Random buttons!" Yang shouted desperately, not wanting to lose a game to Pyrrha again.

Blake mashed a few buttons, which made her character jump around and attack at unpredictable moments. Pyrrha's wrestler character blocked a few attacks but still took some damage.

'What do I do? Maybe I should try being technical,' Pyrrha thought, her panicked thoughts hidden from the sights of everyone else.

While Blake was in mid-air, she pressed forward three times and hit triangle and circle. Jaycee grabbed Kunimitsu from the air and slammed her to the ground, inflicting a small amount of damage.

"How do you switch out?!" Pyrrha asked Nora, who had found and was now reading the instructions manual.

"Press R1!" Nora quickly called, refocusing her attention on her team mate.

Pyrrha remembered seeing a tip for battle before the fight about Tag Throws and decided to follow through with the advice. She pressed R1 and triangle at the same time. Blake was hit in the face, kicked in the head and was tripped by Ren as he came into the fight. Thanks to the unexpected combo, Blake was quickly defeated and her tag team lost without switching out, which greatly disappointed the jumpy blonde.

"I didn't even fight!" Yang exclaimed in sorrow as round two started.

"Then you'll fight this round," Blake said, pressing R1, letting Yang take her place in the fight.

Even with little knowledge of how to play, Yang went all out. She had a hard hitting character, which made it easy to fight whether her opponent was a wrestler or not. Pyrrha was punched, kicked, thrown and elbowed repeatedly as she tried desperately to switch out. Pyrrha lost at the end of the round.

"You're taking the next round..." Blake looked at Yang, impressed. Yang smirked, the final round starting.

Yang and Ren started the fight. Yang was hit multiple times and was down to half of her health bar, forcing her to switch out. Blake was swinging her dagger, slashing at Ren and dealing moderate damage. Ren stuck around for a while before switching places with Pyrrha. Blake kicked Pyrrha's stomach, threw her to the ground and slashed at her shoulders from behind, but was soon kicked through a wall and fell underneath the castle. Only then had she realized how fatigued her fingers were, so with a quick warning to her partner, she switched with Yang. Like the first time, she pulled out all the stops, practically destroying Pyrrha.

"And this is for musical chairs!" Yang roared as Pyrrha was grabbed by the head and thrown to the ground, defeated.

Pyrrha's widened eyes that were glued to the T.V. made it look as if she were surprised, but it was all a facade to hide the subtle glare. Blake was smirking at Ren, who was raging silently at her. It was like the time Ren hit Blake with that blue shell, but the places reversed.

Once Pyrrha was finally wrenched from her spot, Ruby, Weiss, Jaune and Nora played next.

"Oh my gosh, Jaune!" Ruby squealed, covering her mouth with a hand.

"What?" Jaune looked at the reaper in confusion.

"He looks just like you!" Ruby exclaimed in surprise, pointing at a character named Leo, who did bear some resemblance to the knight.

"Wha- how?!" Jaune stared at the character in shock. He was freaking out. How could some random character look and dress like him?

"Wow. What are the odds?" Pyrrha, along with everyone else, stared at the TV in surprise.

"I don't know. What about the evens?" Yang joked, emphasizing 'evens'. Nobody even bothered her with a response. "C'mon, guys, comedy gold here..."

"I'm choosing this guy!" Jaune grinned, selecting Leo.

"This girl reminds me of you," Nora's cursor was on a blonde girl named Lili as she looked at Weiss, grinning widely.

"Well, she is pretty, but why?" Weiss asked, turning her head to look at Nora.

"She does look rich," Ruby pointed out. "You can see it in her clothes."

Weiss frowned at the two girls, choosing Lili anyway. Ruby chose Xiaoyu, a teenage girl with black hair in pigtails, and Nora chose Alisa, an android girl with short pink hair and green eyes. Ruby and Nora were a team and so were Weiss and Jaune.

"Ooh! Christmas!" Ruby and Nora beamed as the reaper chose Arctic Dream.

The stage was indeed an arctic dream, as it was also Christmas themed. Snow blanketed the ground and Christmas decorations were everywhere. Upbeat music started playing.

Weiss and Ruby faced off, starting the first round. Weiss made the first move, grabbing Ruby's head and slamming her foot into the back of it, shoving her headfirst into the snow. As soon as the move was finished, she performed a series of complex attacks, making it look as if she were dancing, yet at the same time whittling away Ruby's health bit by bit.

"I think I could actually fight like her," Weiss said thoughtfully, a rare smile on her face. "I have the flexibility and everything."

"Pffft, you're not the only one who can fight like one of the characters," Yang smirked. "I can do Asuka's moves easily! I already fight like her!"

"You make it sound like anyone can fight like them," Weiss turned to Yang, no longer pressing buttons. "I'm sure no one can fight like Alisa. She's an android!"

"Uh, Weiss..." Jaune said nervously, tugging Weiss's arm.

"What?" Weiss turned back to the TV.

"FINISH HER!" Yang and Nora exclaimed as Ruby dealt the final blow to Weiss.

"Why didn't you switch places with me?!" Weiss shouted, turning to give poor Jaune her signature death glare. "You could have fought her off and kept the match going!"

"I, uh... didn't think of that," Jaune said, ashamed, scratching the back of his head.

The second round started, Nora and Jaune facing off. Nora made the first move, taking her head off her neck and handing it to Jaune.

"Off with my head!" Nora laughed maniacally. Jaune screamed as the head blew up in his hands. A new head grew in place of the old one, Nora smiling maniacally as she watched the quick process.

"What the heck, Nora?!" Jaune screeched before Nora shot her arms at him, dealing a large amount of damage. "What was that?!"

"I'm an android," Nora stuck her tongue at him before turning back to the TV. "I can remove my limbs and my head and- ooh! Chainsaws!"

The students gasped in horror as chainsaws sprouted from Nora's wrists. Nora just stared at the chainsaws, beaming, but Jaune was stupefied, eyes widened in horror with his jaw down to the floor.

"What are you waiting for?" Yang exclaimed, shaking her fist at Nora. "FINISH HIM!"

"Huh?" Nora blinked, her eyes still glued to the chainsaws.

"FINISH HIM!" Yang roared.

It was too late, Weiss and Jaune had switched places. Weiss hit her forehead and elbowed her nose, disabling the chainsaws.

"No!" Nora cried in sorrow. "I'll get you!"

Nora pressed some buttons for a special tag throw with Ruby. Nora out her knee up, flew forward and drove it into Weiss's stomach. She moved out of the way and Ruby charged at her, slamming her elbow into her.

In the end, it was the Valkyrie and the reaper who won. They triggered a special win animation, which consisted of them both giving each other a double high-five and ended with them walking away, chatting.

"How dare you mock us!" Weiss crossed her arms, looking away with her nose high in the air as Ruby and Nora laughed at her.

"What other modes are there?" Yang asked, taking the player 1 controller from her sister.

Yang found the 'endings' and decided to watch one.

"Which one do you want to see?" Yang asked her friends.

"Let's try that one," Pyrrha pointed to a face on the screen. "Ling Xiaoyu."

That ending started with Xiaoyu, a redhead with short hair named Miharu, Alisa and a panda at an amusement park. As the scene drifted on, rain started pouring down on them and they took cover under some shelter.

"What are you smiling about?" Miharu asked Xiaoyu.

"I was just thinking that someday we'll look back on this and think how much fun we had," Xiaoyu responded, looking up with her hands behind her back.

"More like regretting all the things we did, and how we could have done it better," Miharu said.

Ruby and Nora were already getting misty-eyed, though they vehemently denied any sad feelings that they were accused of holding.

"What's gotten into you all of a sudden?" Xiaoyu questioned, looking at her best friend.

"Just thinking about stuff," Miharu said thoughtfully. "Like our futures, and how many decisions we'll have to make on our own."

Jaune's shoulders slumped. This ending was like something that could happen to the two teams before they part ways. It was saddening to think about, the fact that the two groups of best friends would one day have to separate.

"I guess that's true," Xiaoyu leaned over, looking at the sky in thought. "And you'll never know if you made the right decision on the end."

"I think that's a good thing," Alisa piped up, her friends looking at her in surprise.

"What is?"

"Not knowing things!" Alisa exclaimed happily. "As that one guy said: 'The future is what we make of it'."

Every one of them, even Blake and Ren, had a tear in their eye.

"I bet Alisa will never change," Xiaoyu joked.

"And neither will our friendship!" Alisa grinned.

"We should come back here in another 20 years!" Xiaoyu declared, a smile on her face.

"Agreed!" Alisa and Miharu smiled.

"In another 20 years?" Miharu said wistfully. "I wonder what we'll be doing by then."

"One thing's for sure, we'll have wrinkles!" Xiaoyu joked, making her and her friends laugh.

Sometime later, the rain stopped, and they did a jumpshot in the sunset. The ending left the teams in tears.

"I'm never gonna leave you guys!" Ruby exclaimed, sobbing as she wrapped her arms around Nora and Pyrrha.

"Best friends forever!" Nora sobbed on Yang's shoulder.

"It's never gonna change!" Yang grabbed Blake and held her tightly, sobbing as well. Blake's expression was priceless.

Jaune tried and succeeded in sneaking his arm around Weiss without her noticing.

"Don't cry, Snow Angel," Jaune whispered. 'Jackpot!' He thought happily.

"Come on, I'm not going to cry," Despite her words, the heiress practically choked on tears as she blindly held onto Jaune.

At that moment, Weiss realized just how much she appreciated her friends, and how badly she needed them. She never wanted to leave her friends, ever. And they all felt the same towards each other.


	16. July 27th (Laser Tag Part 1 of 2)

"Alright, guys," Yang started, grinning wildly as her hands clapped together. "What can we do that's fun?"

Team RWBY and JNPR were eating breakfast. Yang felt like going out somewhere, but she had no idea where they should go.

"Hmm..." Ruby looked up thoughtfully, putting a finger on her chin. "Is there anything downtown?"

"I think I remember there being a laser tag place when we went to help you find that mug," Pyrrha said.

The majority of RWBY grimaced at the memory, having later realized the true intent of the culprit behind the prank. Then, three minds lit up. "Laser tag?!" Nora, Yang and Ruby gasped excitedly.

"I've always wanted to play laser tag!" Ruby grinned, putting her hands to her cheeks, a far away look on her face. "Dad always said he could never find a place, yet here it was downtown!"

"How come we've never seen it before?" Jaune asked, racking his brain in an attempt to remember if he'd seen or even heard of such a place.

"I'm pretty sure it's new," Pyrrha said to Jaune.

"Are we taking more people with us?" Weiss asked, seeming fine with the idea. It'd be great for releasing some pent-up stress. Being the best teammate one could be didn't come without small bits of annoyances, after all. And there was also the Jaune factor. Oh, she'd have so much fun vaporizing the stubborn blonde...

"Of course we are!" Yang smiled, glancing at the heiress with a knowing look in her eyes. "I know exactly who'd want to come with us..."

* * *

Yang knocked on Team SSSN's door. The rest of her team and JNPR were waiting for her at the statue in the courtyard.

"Sun? Blue boy we saw with Sun? You in there? Helloooo!" Yang called, knocking on the door once again. The door was answered by Sun.

"Yang? What's up?" Sun asked, having no idea why she'd be there.

"My team and JNPR are playing laser tag downtown today," Yang said, putting a hand on her hip. "We were wondering if you and blue boy wanted to come with us."

Sun's face lit up and he turned around. "Yo, Neptune! We're going laser tagging!"

"Really?" Neptune shot up from his bed, his eyes widened.

"Yeah! Come on!" Sun called to him.

"I'll be getting two more people," Yang said. "Meet us in the courtyard! Later, blue boy!"

"I'm not 'blue boy'!" whined blue boy.

Yang ignored Neptune and jogged away to the second year's dorms, which wasn't too far away. She knocked on Team CVFY's door, which was answered by a brown-haired girl wearing a beret and sunglasses.

"Hello," Coco said with her Australian-sounding accent, smiling politely. "I don't believe we've really met before. I'm Coco." She stuck her hand out for a shake.

Yang shook her hand. "I'm Yang. I've heard of you and your team before, you guys sound super cool!"

"Thanks, Yang," Coco smirked. "What brings you to our dorm?"

"Well, my friends and I are going laser tagging today and I thought I'd invite you and Velvet," Yang said with a smile, hands on hips. "You guys must be stressed with the dance so you need to take a break, you know?"

"Sounds good. We'll be right down," Coco nodded and closed the door.

When she was sure she was alone, Yang squealed. "Second year students are laser tagging with us!" Yang whispered happily to herself, bouncing up and down a little.

* * *

All 12 students were finally gathered in the courtyard, ready to go downtown.

"Guys, this is Coco and Velvet," Yang introduced her friends to the second year Huntresses-in-training. "Coco's the leader of Team CFVY and Velvet's her teammate."

"You brought second-years to us?" Ruby gasped. She grabbed their hands and shook them vigorously, grinning madly while Weiss looked on, shaking her head in disapproval. "My name's Ruby Rose! Nice to meet you!"

"Nice to meet you too, Ruby," Coco laughed, not minding the eager behavior of the younger student. "Mind introducing us to your friends here?"

"No problem!" Ruby exclaimed happily, letting go of her hands. "That's Weiss, Blake, Jaune, Pyrrha, Ren, Nora, Sun and Neptune!" She pointed to them as she said their names.

"You're playing laser tag with us?" Sun asked Coco and Velvet.

"Yeah. It sounds like fun," Velvet nodded, smiling.

"Indeed it does! I hear most of your weapons have a gun function, eh? I'm quite the marksman myself." Coco smirked, her satchel transforming into a machine gun.

The freshmen gasped and stared at her in awe. Ruby gasped loudly, sucking in a lot of air, her eyes bigger than dinner plates.

"It's beautiful..." Ruby whispered in awe, eyes sparkling as her fingers twitched, hand inching slowly and closer to the weapon.

"Impressive, isn't it?" Coco laughed at Ruby's reaction. Her machine gun transformed back into her satchel, and an audible disappointed groan left Ruby's mouth. "But enough of that. Let's go, mates!"

The twelve students started their journey to the laser tag centre downtown.

* * *

The group was talking amongst themselves as they walked, having exited the airship a few minutes ago.

"Hey, aren't you that girl Cardin made fun of sometime ago?" Jaune asked Velvet, her Faunus ears reminding him of the incident.

"Yes... He keeps making fun of my ears," Velvet said softly, her hands clasped together in front of her, looking down.

"Well... I like your ears," Jaune said honestly, smiling at her.

"Huh?" Velvet looked at him in surprise.

"I like your ears," Jaune repeated.

"You're not going to make fun of them?" Velvet asked hopefully.

"No, and neither will any of us," Jaune assured her. "Blake and Sun are Faunus too. We don't have anything against you guys."

"Thanks, Jaune," Velvet smiled gladly, looking at her feet again.

Pyrrha was watching closely, and she smiled proudly at her partner and leader. Yang took notice, and inched closer to her hear and whispered, "Bet you wish you had some of those ears, don'cha?"

If Pyrrha were drinking something, she would've spat it out faster than one could say 'Mistral'.

Neptune was striding over to Weiss to start a conversation.

"So, Weiss," Neptune started. "Have you ever played laser tag?"

"No, none of us has," Weiss said blankly, staring straight ahead in an attempt to not get hypnotized by the young man. "Why?"

"I was just wondering if you had any experience," Neptune said with a shrug.

"Experience?" Weiss repeated in questioning, relenting to her feelings and looking at him. "For what?"

"Maybe if we're on the same team we could be partners," Neptune said suavely. "You know, watching each other's backs."

Weiss looked up thoughtfully, considering the advantages of having the blue boy as her partner. She knew that his weapon was a firearm that shot laser-like projectiles, so that was a nice plus there. And then there's the fact that she may or may not have a certain attraction to the goggled teen.

"Alright, we'll be partners," Weiss gave him a small smile, and Neptune returned the gesture with a cheekier one.

Jaune had no smile, only a bothered frown. He was listening to their conversation and was slightly jealous of Neptune.

"What's the matter, Jaune?" Velvet asked in concern, noticing Jaune's frown.

"Nothing," Jaune said dejectedly.

"You were looking at Neptune and Weiss, right?" Velvet tilted her head to the side. "Are you jealous?"

"Well... yeah..." Jaune admitted sadly. "It's just that... I try so hard and she says no to everything I suggest except for studying! Neptune says one word and she's hooked! I just don't understand..."

"Maybe you're just not her type," Velvet suggested. "Don't worry, I'm sure someone out there likes you."

"Like who?" Jaune looked up at her like a tortured puppy.

"Uh..." Velvet had no idea what to say except for the first person that popped in to her mind. "Blake?"

The swordsman wasn't sure he heard her right. "What? No way!" Jaune waved his hands in front of him. "We barely talk!"

"Yang?" Velvet suggested, her finger up to her chin.

"Same as Blake."

"Coco!" Velvet called to her leader. "Can you help me?"

As soon as she heard her team mate call out for her, Coco gave a quick 'See you later' to the reaper and jogged up to the pair, ending her conversation with Ruby about her weapon.

"Jaune feels dejected and thinks no one likes him," Velvet informed Coco.

It barely took the gunner more than a second to come up with a response. "What about that Pyrrha girl?" Coco suggested.

The idea perked the blondes interest, but only for a moment. They were partners...Besides, Pyrrha was Pyrrha, and Jaune was Jaune. He didn't have a chance, did he? "Maybe..." Jaune's shoulders slumped.

"See, now?" Coco clapped him on the shoulder. "Don't lose hope, mate! You'll find a girl!"

On the bright side, Jaune could always just think of the other fish in the sea. "I guess so," Jaune sighed.

"Now turn that frown upside down!" Coco encouraged. Jaune was tempted to tell her that her choice of words didn't technically made any sense, since turning a facial expression upside down didn't really change it at all, but he contented himself with giving her a weak smile. "Atta boy!" She grinned.


	17. July 27th (Laser Tag Part 2 of 2)

Teams RWBY, JNPR, Sun, Neptune, Coco and Velvet approached the laser tag centre, all with expectant smiles on their faces.

"Here it is," Pyrrha announced, spreading her arms out wide to gesture towards the stadium.

"Yay! We're here!" Nora cheered, her usual grin present. Ren had to hold her by the shoulder to prevent her from breaking through the doors.

"Let's go in already!" Yang exclaimed impatiently, dragging a struggling Ruby inside by the arm.

* * *

They were all suited up and ready to go. They all wore padding over their chests, shoulders and back and held laser guns in their hands.

"Alright, here are the teams," an employee said, clapping her hands. "You, you, Ms. Schnee, you, you and you," -she pointed to Ruby, Yang, Weiss, Neptune, Blake and Coco- "against you, you, you, Ms. Nikos, you and you." She pointed to Velvet, Jaune, Ren, Pyrrha, Nora and Sun. "You may get into pairs to watch each other's backs. Now, get in there once you're ready."

Ruby took a quick moment to mull over whether if it was a good idea or not, but she gave in to her instincts and tapped Coco's shoulder. "Coco? Could I be your partner? I want to see you in action!"

Adjusting her sunglasses so that they were higher, Coco chuckled at the grinning reaper, her glinting silver eyes reflecting off of her glasses. "Of course. I'll show you how it's done!" She rested her laser gun on her shoulder, flashing a toothy smile.

"Awesome!" Ruby squealed, her fists pumped in to the air. "This'll be so fun!"

"Hey, Pumpkin Pyrrha," Sun nudged Pyrrha's arm, a casual smile plastered on his face.

Pyrrha frowned at the nickname, but responded politely, "Yes?"

"Wanna be partners?" Sun asked, showing no signs at all that he noticed the disapproving gesture.

"Sure. As long as you don't call me 'Pumpkin Pyrrha' again," Pyrrha raised her brow at him. "What was that about anyway?"

"Eh, I had to get your attention some way." He shrugged at the matter, and Pyrrha frowned once more.

"So, uh, Velvet," Jaune called nervously. The rabbit Faunus looked at him, her head tilted in curiosity. "I guess we're partners..." The blonde finished, scratching the back of his neck.

It was true. Sun and Pyrrha and Ren and Nora were already partners, leaving Velvet and Jaune. The remaining pairs were Yang and Blake and Weiss and Neptune. They all headed to the foggy labyrinth.

* * *

Dead silence. It hung in the air around Velvet and Jaune, which scared them immensely. No footsteps, no breathing noises other than their own as they slowly walked around the cold, death-filled labyrinth.

"J-Jaune..." Velvet whispered softly. "Where do you think the-" a finger on her lips shushed her.

"Silence," Jaune whispered, dead serious. Velvet's eyes grew wide at the unexpected movement, the light pink that suddenly dotted her cheeks going unnoticed by the both of them.

They turned a corner, squinting through the fog. They could make out two silhouettes approaching them. Velvet readied her gun, barely making out two cat ears. The rabbit Faunus quickly fired at the silhouettes' chests and scampered away, a confused and yelping Jaune in tow.

The silhouettes looked at the tips of their guns in surprise, seeing the name 'Velvet Cake' on them.

"Dammit, Velvet!" The one without the 'cat ears' grumbled, attempting to fire at her attacker's back, missing the shot.

* * *

Weiss and Neptune were walking around when they heard loud footsteps. They froze, standing back to back, gripping their guns tightly. Weiss looked back and forth, looking for the source of the footsteps. She didn't need to, there was a red line moving from side to side, which no doubt came from someone's gun.

"Wheeee!" Nora's voice whispered loudly in the fog.

"Second level," Weiss whispered urgently to Neptune. "Go!"

Neptune nodded and sneaked away to the stairs, going along with Weiss's plan. Weiss dodged, ducked and leaned out of the red laser's way so she didn't get hit. Bringing the sight up to her eyes, she lined up the shot with the source of the laser with trained accuracy, and pulled the trigger.

"Geh!" Nora's distant voice yelped. She looked at the tip of her gun and saw 'Ice Queen' on it.

Weiss moved her laser to the right and hit someone else, but they didn't say anything, just looked around. The Valkyrie's partner fired and hit Weiss.

Neptune was right above Nora and Ren. They were told there were gimmicks in the labyrinth, and shooting through parts of the second floor was one of them. Neptune was taking advantage of that and shot Nora and Ren's shoulders.

While they were distracted, looking at the ceiling, Weiss disappeared behind the wall next to them. She sidestepped to the other end and reappeared behind Nora and Ren. She shot and hit their backs from a distance. Nora turned around and shot Weiss's shoulders and chest, a triumphant grin on her face.

Ren shot at Neptune, but missed. The blue boy was one step ahead, having rushed his way back to the first floor. Neptune grabbed Weiss and dragged her away, his gun aimed at his opponents.

* * *

Ruby and Coco were split up on the second floor. They'd made a plan before they went in that they'd be separated, but close. They were going to ambush at least one of the lairs on the other team.

Coco wandered alone, gun at the ready and finger on the trigger, scouting, hunting for prey. She heard very quiet footsteps from somewhere nearby. Coco pushed up her sunglasses and pressed herself against the wall, looking slowly around the corner. She just managed to catch the image of Sun and Pyrrha and quickly went back to her original position against the wall. She shuffled to the middle of the wall and waited for them to try ambushing her. They wouldn't stand a chance against the mighty Coco.

Footsteps, quick ones, came from both sides of her. Sun appeared on her right, Pyrrha on her left, about to shoot her down. Coco reacted quickly, shooting each of their chests and shoulders, going back and forth, shooting them one at a time.

Ruby came from behind Sun and Pyrrha and shot their backs. Pyrrha turned and shot at Ruby, hitting her shoulder. Sun shot Coco's chest, went around the corner and shot Ruby's other shoulder from behind. The reaper was now firing at both the monkey Faunus and the spartan, hitting more often than missing.

Coco came to her partners aid, shooting their attackers backs. She noticed another pair coming up the stairs. Recognizing a pair of bunny ears, she promptly shot the rabbit Faunus. This immediately alerted both opposing partners, their guns snapping upward to shoot her chest and shoulder.

"Ruby!" Coco called just loud enough for her partner to hear her. "Watch this!"

Coco smirked and, with trained rapid pulls of the trigger, shot Jaune's chest and shoulders. She did the same for Velvet, gracefully dodging her opponents' shots. She hit Sun and Pyrrha's chests and shoulders before fleeing to the first floor. Ruby followed, shooting the opposing team's backs on the way.

* * *

Blake and Yang were pressed against a wall, sidestepping to the other side, knees bent in preparation to make a quick turn around a corner. Blake was in front, making her way to the other side of the wall. When she turned the corner, she was met with the tip of a gun on her forehead. The cold metal pressed against her was enough to make Blake pale. She crossed her eyes as she looked at the gun, gulping down some of her anxiety.

"Whoa, it's just me," Neptune whispered, taking the gun away from her head. Blake sighed in relief.

"Uh-oh..." Yang said nervously.

"Hmm?" Blake turned around, and soon found the issue.

Yang's back was facing her. Her partner was faced with a similar situation as her, but instead of Neptune being there, it was the queen of the castle. The blonde had turned around to see if anyone was tailing them, which she learned there was, when she found the tip of a gun on her nose.

Nora had a big grin on her face. This was not the face of mercy, mind you.

"Boop!" Nora said devilishly.

Yang quickly brought up her gun and shot Nora, Blake doing the same. Neptune went behind Nora and shot her back.

Weiss found Ren nearby and shot him three times, not surprised when he shot her back and shoulders. When Weiss fully turned around, she was shot in the chest. Blake came up behind him and shot him twice before leaving a shadow clone behind. Ren shot it, and was disappointed when it phased out of existence.

Nora, Neptune and Yang brought their firefight over to the other three, the Valkyrie dodging their lasers. Ren shot Yang while she was busy trying to shoot his partner, not noticing her stop to fire at him. Ren got hit and he fled with his partner close behind.

* * *

After the game ended, the players were teleported to the lobby. They took off their padding and handed it to an employee along with their guns. They looked at the scoreboard, eager to see who the winning team was.

"We won!" Ruby cheered, a grin on her face as she threw her hands up in to the air in celebration.

"I knew we could do it!" Yang cheered, fist pumping along with her sister with a cocky grin.

"Aww..." Nora's shoulders slumped as she frowned sadly, a comforting hand on her shoulder from Ren.

"It was only by 15 points!" Jaune pointed out, his arms flung to his sides in frustration as he couldn't help but feel disappointment at his teams loss. Though it wasn't like he had that much to complain about, he was one of the worst players.

"Don't be a sore loser, mate," Coco smiled, crossing her arms.

"She's right, at least it was fun!" Velvet smiled zealously at Jaune, trying her best to lift the boy's blue mood.

Even with the loss of a game on his head, Jaune still found it easy to smile at the Faunus' cute attempts to make him happy.

"Yeah, it was."


	18. July 28th (Carnival Part 1 of 2)

"Hey, guys!" Yang greeted her friends with a smile, walking to their breakfast table with her food and a skip in her step.

"What are you so excited about?" Pyrrha asked, laughing a bit at her friends unusual but extremely happy demeanour.

"Guess what I found on the floor today!" Yang exclaimed in a sing-song voice, beaming so much her eyes closed.

"... A chocolate bar?" Ruby guessed, taking a bite of her strawberry.

Yang didn't say a word, simply dropping a flyer on the table instead, eyes still closed from her cheeky grin. Nora gasped loudly, hands on her cheeks and her mouth in an 'O' shape. She reached across the table and grabbed Yang's arms.

"Are we going to the Candlewick Carnival?" Nora squealed in delight. Blake's ears twitched at the name, the Faunus frowning behind her book.

"Mmhmmm," Yang nodded, smiling in pride.

Now it was Ruby's turn to grin. Gaping at Yang, she slowly lifted a hand and pointed at her, barely stuttering out the words, "Y-You got us...tickets and e-everything?!" She was almost afraid that this was some sick, cruel prank, but she knew that, the moment her sister nodded again, there were no lies in the blondes words. "You're the best, Yang!" Ruby screamed, wrapping her arms around Yang, who suddenly found it very hard to breathe.

"Easy- Ruby, you're killing me here-"

"Now you know how the majority of your hugs feel..." An amused Weiss huffed under her breath.

* * *

The group was in downtown with Sun and Neptune, who were tagging along. There were decorations all throughout downtown, brightly coloured balloons and tents scattered everywhere. Humans and Faunus of all ages smiling happily, the children beaming, some with prizes in their arms. The atmosphere was that of happiness and utter joy, that alone bringing smiles to their faces.

"Look, the ferris wheel!" Nora beamed, pointing to the big colourful ferris wheel in the heart of the area. "When can we go on?"

"We should go there last," Weiss said matter-of-factly. "We'll be here all day, so we'll do the other attractions first before the grand finale."

"Everyone says that..." Ruby mumbled, pouting.

"Okay, guys!" Yang said, getting their attention. "There's tons of people here, so it's best to split up. It's the middle of the day, so we'll meet up at sundown and go on the ferris wheel. Sound cool?" Yang didn't wait for a response. "Find a partner!"

Yang wasted no time in hooking her arm around Ruby's and dragging her protesting sister away with a grin. Nora did the same with Ren, blabbering about in excitement as they disappeared in the crowds.

"So, uh..." Sun looked at Blake awkwardly. "Carnival buddies?"

'I'm so bad at this!' Sun thought angrily. 'I can't get a partner without making it awkward!'

"I wouldn't call it 'buddies', but..." Blake smiled a little. "Alright." With that, they left.

Jaune and Pyrrha also partnered up and left together, leaving Weiss and Neptune.

Weiss looked at the blue boy, a dash of light pink dusting her cheeks. "Well... What first?"

* * *

Jaune and Pyrrha were walking around, weaving their way through the crowds in search of something fun to try.

"Pyrrha?" Jaune said nervously, fidgeting.

"Yes, Jaune?" Pyrrha said politely, turning to him.

"This might be a dumb question, but..." Jaune started. "What's this carnival for?"

Pyrrha was genuinely surprised, to say the least. Everyone knew the story of Candlewick Carnival, right?

"It's to get people excited for the Vytal Festival," Pyrrha explained patiently. "In short, there's a ceremony at night where everyone lights candles and lines them along the sidewalks to wish the participants in the Festival good luck."

"But since you're participating in the Vytal Festival, aren't you wishing yourself good luck?" Jaune asked, puzzled.

"I... guess I am," Pyrrha said with a shrug and nod.

There was a short silence between them.

"Hey, how about we play that game over there?" Jaune suggested, pointing to a stand with a sign that said 'Knock Down the Bottles'.

"Alright," Pyrrha agreed to the idea, leading the way to the game stand.

"Hello, you two!" The happy carnie greeted, smiling at them. "Which one of you is playing?"

"I'll play," Jaune pointed to himself.

"Getting a stuffed bear for your girlfriend?" The carnie raised a brow playfully.

"W-we're just friends!" Jaune stammered, shaking his head vigorously as he glanced uneasily at Pyrrha, who wore a masked expression.

"Suuure." Jaune was oblivious to the sarcasm dripping from the carnies tone. Either that, or he chose not to pay attention. Pyrrha, meanwhile, was slowly turning as red as her hair, though she kept quiet. "Three Lien."

Jaune handed him the money and he got three baseballs. He had to knock down three bottle pyramids, each made of three bottles. Jaune ended up missing all three times.

"Come on!" Jaune exclaimed, glaring at the bottles. "I'm going again!" He did the exchange with the carnie.

"Jaune, you don't have to-" Pyrrha started in an attempt to stop Jaune.

"I'm doing it," Jane said in determination, throwing the first ball which he missed. This happened two more times.

His eyes narrowed, the flame of determination slowly consuming his soul. "They taunt me," Jaune growled, his fists clenched, frustrated at the bottles that refused to fall down from his might.

* * *

Blake and Sun had bought cotton candy for themselves and were walking around, eating it slowly. Blake scanned the crowds, eyes wandering. She bumped into someone, nearly dropping her treat.

"You okay?" Sun asked Blake, who was still standing.

"Yeah," Blake nodded before looking forward, eyes widening considerably. She recognized the man in front of her, and so did Sun.

None other than Roman Torchwick.

"You!" Blake growled, pointing her cotton candy at Roman threateningly.

"You should pay attention more often, kitty," Roman grumbled, dusting off his jacket.

"What are you even doing here?" Blake asked suspiciously, eyes narrowed.

"Excuse me for wanting to enjoy myself," Roman said smugly, smirking. Blake glared at him. "Are you actually picking a fight? Come on, you don't even have your weapon on you."

Roman was right, Blake was unarmed and so was Sun.

"Besides, this is a carnival, fuzzy," Roman taunted, his smirk growing. "Wouldn't want to scare the children."

"You're not worth our time," Sun grumbled, taking Blake's arm and walking away. Blake grudgingly followed, looking back at Roman with a furious look on her face, waving her cotton candy at him while he laughed at her.

"Blake, look," Sun turned her around so she faced him. "Vacation. This is a carnival, remember? Chill out."

"But he's right ov-"

"Like he said, we don't have our weapons on hand," Sun pointed out, laying a hand on her shoulder. "We'll worry about him later."

Blake sighed in defeat. He was right, they were on break and were weaponless.

"Alright, fine. What are we doing next?"

* * *

"Having fun?" Neptune asked Weiss as they strolled across a street.

"I guess," Weiss said indifferently with a shrug.

Neptune frowned, eyebrows scrunched together at the emotionless response. "You guess? Why?"

"There's just..." Weiss hesitated, unsure if she should speak her mind or not. Deciding that nothing bad could come from it, she continued. "Lots of people around, that's all."

Neptune raised a questioning eyebrow. "But don't you sing at concerts? Tons of people go to those."

"That's why I close my eyes when I sing," Weiss explained. "I've gotten better with it, though."

Neptune tried to think of a way to make Weiss happier. His eyes settled on a darts stand up ahead.

"How about this," Neptune started. "I play darts and win you a prize. Would that make you happier?"

"You would do that for me?" Weiss asked, flattered.

"Yep," Neptune nodded, his trademark smile tugging at the corner of his lips.

When they got to the darts stand, the carnie told Neptune he had to pop the three balloons to win a prize.

"Okay, I got this," Neptune picked up a dart, narrowing his eyes at the target. He drew his arm back and...

"Wait, how do you do this again?"

There was a loud slapping noise behind Neptune. "Just throw!" Weiss exclaimed, her palm on her face.

Neptune threw the dart and popped the balloon. Weiss looked up, a surprised look on her face.

"See? I got this," Neptune said coolly, picking up his second dart. He threw it and missed. "... Okay, maybe not." He ended up missing the third balloon also. Determined not to look like a failure in front of the heiress, Neptune played again.

He played five more times, always missing only the last balloon. By now, he was just plain frustrated.

"You don't have to do this, you know," Weiss said, giving Neptune a concerned look.

"'Course I do. Besides, it's fun and it's for you," Neptune sent her a charming smile. "I got motivation." He readied his dart.

After three shots, he popped all the balloons and won Weiss a prize. He chose the fluffy white teddy bear, which, at first, got him an amused expression out of her. Eventually, she got past the resemblance, and was now holding it closely.

"Thank you!" The two called to the carnie as they left the stand.

"What're you naming it?" Neptune asked Weiss curiously.

"I'll name it..." Weiss trailed off in thought, hugging her teddy. "Bubbles!"

* * *

Nora was speeding about, a wide grin on her face as she twirled around at speeds Ren couldn't handle. The lotus boy was trying to catch up to her, panting with an abundance of prizes in his arms.

"Nora!" Ren called to his best friend, the poor huntsman in training exhausted from carrying around teddy bears, rubber ducks, and other assortments of prizes all day. To him, Nora seemed like she was a thousand miles away.

"Yes, Ren?" Nora called back, stopping a mere few feet away from him.

"Wait a second," Ren said weakly, practically dragging himself over to her. Nora bounced on the balls of her feet as she waited for him.

"Hurry up!" Nora said impatiently, bouncing more viciously, fists at her shoulders.

"You know I don't have much energy," Ren panted as he finally reached Nora.

"I know!" Nora grinned, grabbing his arm and dragging him somewhere. "Let's get moving! We're having some funnel cake!"

* * *

Ruby and Yang had already won themselves a small brown teddy bear, which Ruby had under her arm. The sisters were holding strawberry and vanilla milkshakes, Yang being careful to not get brain freeze again.

"Our milkshakes bring all the boys to the dorm!" Yang sang loudly, doing a little dance. "And they're like-!"

"Don't sing that, Yang," Ruby frowned at her sister, embarrassed as she glanced worriedly at bystanders. "Please. We're getting funny looks!"

"Fine," Yang pouted, taking a sip of her milkshake. She looked around, her eyes settling on a shooting game stand. "There's a shooting game over there."

"Where?!" Ruby sped away, hitting Yang's arm with her shoulder as she sprinted past her.

Yang spun around, making her lose her grip on her milkshake and flinging it a few feet away.

"No!" Yang ran after it, trying to catch it before it hit the ground.

Her world was in slow motion as she leaped for it, arms outstretched. The glass brushed her fingertips before crashing to the ground. Yang, fortunately, fell right beside it, facing the shattered glass and wasted drink. She stared at her ex-milkshake, tears of mourning streaming down her face.

"You looked so tasty, filled with whipped cream..." Yang said pitifully. "You were 4 Lien, dammit!" She clenched her fists, pounding the ground in anger, taking no care in the cracks forming, nor at the confused or sympathetic watchers staring at her. Yang moved on quickly, though, standing with only a frown and making her way to Ruby at the shooting game stand.

A tragic love story had just ended.

Anyway, while Yang witnesses the death of her beloved, Ruby had annihilated all 15 targets with a mere dart gun. Yang approached Ruby, her eyes wide in surprise at her baby sister wearing a hat that said 'It's also a dart gun'.

"Where were you?" Ruby asked Yang as the walked away from the stand. She noticed the absence of her milkshake. "Where's your milkshake?"

Yang didn't respond, but Ruby needed no words to understand the plight that her sister went through.

"Don't worry, Yang!" Ruby smiled at her sweetly. "You can have mine if you want. Here, take it." Ruby gave Yang her milkshake, which she reluctantly took a sip of with a sniffle.

"Thanks," Yang mumbled as they continued on. Ruby's milkshake wasn't bad...

...but it would never match Yang's own.

'R.I.P., my old friend,' Yang thought sadly, taking another sip.


	19. July 28th (Carnival Part 2 of 2)

Beads of sweat poured down Jaune's forehead as he panted. He lethargically threw the baseball at the bottles with little effort. Miraculously, the baseball hit the mini bottle pyramid and it collapsed. One more to go.

"This is harder than it looks!" Jaune gasped, wiping sweat off his brow and picking up the last baseball.

"You've been doing this for an hour and a half, Jaune," Pyrrha pointed out, putting a hand on his shoulder and looking him in the eye. "Make this count."

Jaune had no idea what it was that made him so determined to destroy the last pyramid. It was either Pyrrha or the tidal wave of sheer exhaustion that washed over his body, but he threw the ball and took down the last one.

Pyrrha let out a tiny gasp as she looked at Jaune in wonder. She knew he could do it, but it had gone on for so long she'd started to lose hope in her leader. Even the carnie was surprised.

They got their prize, a red teddy bear, and left the stand.

"That took a while," Jaune sighed, still exhausted, as he rubbed his sore arm. Pyrrha laughed, and gave him a congratulatory pat on the back.

"Ow-"

"Sorry!"

* * *

Blake looked up at the sky, taking note of its colour. The bright blue was slowly fading to a pink-orange colour, signalling the beginning of sunset. They had to meet up with the others at the ferris wheel.

"Sun, we have to get to the ferris wheel," Blake informed him.

"Already?" Sun asked in disbelief, looking at the sky. "Oh. Let's get going, then!" Sun started jogging to the ferris wheel, Blake in tow.

When they reached their destination, they only saw Weiss and Neptune in line with them.

"Weiss?" Sun questioned, looking at the fluffy white bear she held in her arms. "Did Neptune get that for you?"

"Yes, he did," Weiss smiled, hugging Bubbles closer to her.

Sun looked at his friend with wonder and disbelief, with a hint of betrayal.

'Teach me your ways!' Sun mentally communicated with Neptune(Because they were just THAT good at reading each others expressions). 'Weiss is smiling and everything! Ugh, why didn't I get something for Miss Frown beside me?!'

Neptune gave him an infuriating wink. He knew how badly Sun was beating himself up, but he couldn't help it. Nothing like making your best friend angry in the trying path of romance.

Jaune and Pyrrha joined them, Sun noticing Pyrrha acting exactly like Weiss with her own stuffed bear. This only augmented his fury.

'Even Arc got his girl something! ARGH, WHY?!'

"You okay, man?" Neptune asked Sun, a playful smile gracing his face.

"Yeah, I'm fine," Sun grumbled, his eyes narrowed to show promised pain if Neptune dared toy with the Faunus any longer.

"How was the carnival for you guys?" Pyrrha asked her friends.

"It was pretty fun," Weiss's smile grew.

"It was okay until we saw Roman," Blake sighed, still a bit stressed over his sudden and unexpected appearance.

"You what?!" Weiss's happy demeanor disappeared, a shocked expression replacing it.

"Yeah, we saw him, but it was no big deal," Sun shrugged, attempting to calm them down. "He didn't try to kill us. It's cool for now."

"Are you sure about that?" Jaune asked worriedly. He and his team knew of Roman and Cinder through what RWBY had told them and they knew they weren't good news.

"Positive," Sun nodded, noticing the remainder of their group joining them.

"Alright, the gang's all here!" Yang grinned, her fists thrusted up to the air. "Now we can ride the ferris wheel together!"

They were now at the front of the line, waiting for permission to enter the ride. When they got on, they were in the same pairs as before.

The view was spectacular. The sky was a rich purple by the time they were in their cars, the stars visible above. Their bright light was barely dulled by the city lights. At that moment, Sun was currently watching something-or someone-even more spectacular in his eyes.

"So, uh, hey, Blake," Sun attempted to start a conversation, looking at Blake, who stared out the window in boredom. "How's it going?"

"I'm fine," Blake said curtly, her eyes never changing direction, still glued to the sight outside the window.

"You wanna... talk about something?" Sun asked.

"There isn't much to say," Blake said, her voice as monotone as ever. She put her arm on the armrest and rested her cheek on her raised palm, closing her eyes.

Sun was considering whether or not it was better to leave the girl alone. He could understand the feeling of not wanting to talk, but...He might as well try, right? Take a few pointers from Jaune, who kept advancing on Weiss.

"Then... how was today?" Sun asked, finally finding a topic. "Was it fun?"

"I guess..." Blake sighed, opening her amber eyes and looking up at Sun. "Torchwick was-"

"Yeah, he was here," Sun nodded in understanding. "It really bummed you out, huh?"

Blake didn't respond, her mind on Roman and what their next move against him should be.

"I'll take that as a yes," Sun sighed in defeat. 'Next time, don't copy off a guy that keeps getting rejected,' he thought sadly as his own gaze drifted towards the darkening sky.

* * *

"Do you feel better now, Yang?" Ruby asked her sister, concerned about the milkshake mishap.

"Yep!" Yang grinned. "Today was really fun too. It's not over yet, though!"

"What do you mean?" Ruby questioned, head tilted.

"It's the ceremony, silly!" Yang laughed.

Ruby's eyes widened, her mouth forming an 'O' shape. "Oh, right! I forgot about that!"

The ferris wheel stopped and the sisters stepped off, both of them smiling. Their friends joined the, when they noticed a growing crowd approaching.

"Why are so many people getting in line?" Jaune asked cluelessly, looking at the massive crowd.

"They're not here for the ferris wheel, silly," Pyrrha giggled. "They're here for the ceremony!"

"Attention everyone!" The carnival manager, who stood on a chair, announced with a megaphone. "Thank you for attending the annual Candlwick Carnival! I hope you are all now excited for the long-awaited Vytal Festival, which will take place very soon. There is one thing we all wish for you to do before you leave, however. We have a ceremony planned to wish the competitors good luck!"

Loud cheers erupted from the crowd, applause soon following it.

"You will all be given lit candles for you to line the sidewalk with. Please be careful not to drop them. Thank you and have a good night!" The manager stepped off the chair, smiling as applause rang through the air once more.

"Ooh! I'm so excited!" Nora grinned. "I've never done this before! This'll be so much fun!"

Yang received her candle first. It was a glowing orange colour, the flame barely moving as she stared at intensely at it in wonder. Ruby was next with a pink candle, Weiss with a white candle, Neptune a purple candle, Jaune with a beige one, Pyrrha with a red one, Ren a black candle, Nora a cream coloured one, Sun a blue and Blake a dark purple.

"So, where do we go?" Weiss asked, careful not to set Bubbles on fire.

"Follow me!" Nora exclaimed happily, dancing ahead with her candle.

"Nora, wait!" Pyrrha called, keeping an eye on her own candle as she speed walked to catch up to her energetic teammate. Her friends quickly followed her close behind.

After a minute or so of walking, Nora found an empty spot and set her candle down, taking Ren's too, for his hands were mostly full of prizes, setting it down also. Sun put his candle next to Nora's, Ruby's beside Sun's, then Yang, Pyrrha, Neptune, Weiss, Jaune and Blake.

"Welp, good luck to you, Pyrrha!" Yang smiled, giving the redhead a hard clap on the back, almost making her stumble.

"Thanks!" Pyrrha laughed, straightening up.

"She doesn't really need it, she'll beat them up pretty badly, right?" Jaune joked.

"Yeah! She'll break their legs!" Nora cheered, earning odd looks from passerby.

"I think leg breaking is more your thing, isn't it?" Ruby nudged Nora with a snicker.

"That's true, but..." Nora smiled, her hands behind her back. "I'll give Pyrrha the leg breaking crown for the Festival. How does that sound?"

"That sounds alright, but that's not my style," Pyrrha smiled politely. "Magnhild is more suited for breaking bones than Milo and Akouo."

Nora thought about that for a second or two before coming to a conclusion.

"You're right! I'm still Queen of the Leg Breaking Castle!" Nora gave a face-splitting grin.

A loud bang interrupted their conversation, catching them off guard.

"What was that?!" Blake frantically looked around, searching for a threat, possibly Torchwick.

"Fireworks," Neptune pointed to the sky, which was slowly becoming littered with a multitude of colors and sparks.

"Wow..." Ruby said in awe, holding her teddy close as they all watched the fireworks light up the sky and each other's faces.

Weiss's fingertips unconsciously made their way to Neptune's, barely brushing them before she noticed herself. She quickly retracted her hand, but Neptune noticed. He smiled, and she tried to hide her blush. Yang snapped a photo on her scroll.

Soon, the fireworks ended and they all had to leave.

"That was the. Best. Day. Ever!" Ruby grinned, clapping her hands as they walked out of the carnival area. "Thanks for taking us, Yang! You're the best!"

"No problem," Yang shrugged. "I still don't believe I found the flyer in the first place, though."

"Where did you find it anyway?" Sun asked.

"I have my ways," Yang smirked.

"C'mon, tell us," Weiss smirked back, rolling her eyes. "How bad could it possibly be?"

There was a long silence before Yang spoke.

"Boys' bathroom..." Yang mumbled nervously, pressing her index fingertips together. She instantly regretted bringing it up in the first place.

"YANG!"

"It was lying on the floor and I ran in to pick it up before anyone noticed!"

"Yang, that's really weird, even for you," Blake frowned at her partner.

"Yeah... I know..."

"Why were you even looking in there, anyway?" Ruby asked, her face scrunched up as she thought of ridiculous scenarios of why Yang would be in a bathroom intended for the opposite gender.

Yang did not answer that question. She hoped everyone would just forget she answered, but being victims to her jokes and teasing, they'd all make sure to use this as ammo if ever they got a chance to annoy the blonde.

Revenge is always sweet, after all...


	20. July 29th

The eight friends were sitting at their table again, enjoying their meal when Pyrrha had asked about their plans for the day.

"So, where are we going today?" Pyrrha asked at breakfast.

Yang's eyes lit up when she came up with an idea. "Hey, Rubes," she addressed Ruby, a few crumbs spilling out of her mouth. "Remember that lake we always went to when we were kids?"

"Uh... yeah," Ruby nodded, smiling at the memories they made there.

"You went to a lake when you were younger?" Jaune asked disbelievingly.

"What, you didn't?" Yang laughed.

"No..."

"Well, we can show you if you want," Ruby offered.

"Yeah! Show us, show us!" Nora urged with an eager grin.

* * *

"Okay, we just have to get through this small forest," Yang explained cheerfully, leading the group through the entrance.

As they walked through the trees, they had to bat away the long branches at head level. After a short while, they reached a clearing.

"Whoa," Nora dragged out the word in awe, her eyes wide and a dumbfounded facial expression.

The group looked at the magnificent lake in wonder, Blake taking a picture of it with her Scroll absentmindedly. It wasn't very large, but a spectacular sight nonetheless. The clear blue sky reflected off the surface of the lake's water, the sunlight giving off sparkles on it also. The trees around the body of water gently danced in the breeze.

"This is amazing," Weiss smiled. She turned to Ruby. "How did you find this place anyway?"

"Yang and me went exploring when we were little," Ruby explained, sighing happily. "We found this lake and we played here for a long time."

"It's nice to see everything the way it was all those years ago," Yang added fondly. "Even the tire swings are still here."

"What did you do here when you were younger?" Pyrrha asked.

"We'll show you!" Yang grinned, running to the tire swing. She jumped on top of the tire, crouched down, while Ruby sat on the swing from the inside.

Yang put the side of her hand to her forehead like she was an adventurer. "Shiver me timbers! There be treasure nearby! Come on swabbie, swab the deck! We be needing a nice, clean spot for me gold!"

"Swabbing the deck, Cap'n!" Ruby laughed, making hand motions that made her appear as if she were cleaning.

"Stuff like that," Yang said, jumping off the tire, Ruby following suit.

"That has to be the cutest thing I've ever seen," Pyrrha giggled, clapping after the act. Yang blushed faintly.

"Pffft, you've seen cuter, right?" Yang spluttered.

"She hasn't seen Zwei yet," Ruby whispered in Yang's ear.

"Alright, alright," Yang said hastily. "Let's enjoy the lake, okay?"

"I'll take the swing!" Nora grinned, practically flying to the tire. She leaped into the hole in the center, already swinging. "Come on, Ren!"

Ren let a smile slip before jumping on top of the tire while it was still in motion.

"I have an idea." Yang grinned. "How about we try to fit all of us on that swing?"

"That sounds crazy, not to mention dangerous!" Weiss shouted over Nora's happy cackles.

"C'mon, Weiss." Yang rolled her eyes in amusement. "If we can survive a train crash, we can stand on a moving tire."

"Fine. If you break a bone or dislocate something, that's on you," Weiss said sourly.

"Nora! Stop swinging!" Ruby called to the Valkyrie. "We're going to try something!"

Nora pouted, digging her heels into the ground, effectively stopping the swing.

"Me first," Blake claimed to everyone's surprise. She climbed to the top of the tire and sat next to Ren, grabbing the rope between them for support.

Ruby climbed on top as well, standing directly behind the rope, her feet on either side of it. Weiss hugged Blake's side of the tire with her limbs wrapped around it, Pyrrha mimicking her on Ren's side.

Yang and Jaune, however, had quite the predicament.

"Where do we go?!" Jaune cried, staring at his friends in confusion.

"Maybe you should go on the bottom," Yang suggested, much to her blond friend's discomfort.

"Sorry, what?" Jaune questioned. "How?"

"Just hang off the bottom," Yang snickered.

"Why in the name of Remnant would I possibly-"

* * *

"I don't like this at all," Jaune frowned, hanging off the bottom of the tire.

It had taken a lot of convincing, but it worked out in the end.

"Ta-da!" Yang exclaimed dramatically, hoisting herself up at the back of the swing. Her feet were at Nora's sides, her torso draped over the tire behind the rope and her head on Blake's side if the tire. "Eight people can fit on a tire! Nora, swing!"

"Wait, what?" Jaune shrieked, blades of grass slapping his cheek as they slowly swung back and forth. He swore his life was flashing before his eyes.

"I think that's good enough," Pyrrha said, a hint of fear in her voice as she clung to the tire more tightly. "I don't think it can hold out weight for much longer."

Nora stopped swinging once again, jumping off and falling on her front and knocking the wind out of her.

"Oof!" She wheezed as she landed.

"Well, what now?" Ruby lept off the swing, landing on her feet.

"I'm not sure, really." Yang got off as well and shrugged.

"Jaune, you can get off now." Pyrrha smiled at Jaune, who was now the only one still attached to the tire swing.

"I was waiting for it to be perfectly still!" Jaune cried, letting go of the bottom. "Ow!"

"We should've brought out bathing suits." Weiss sighed regretfully.

"Why?" Blake asked warily, not really liking the thought of swimming. Even though she wasn't there, the shark thing did her in.

"We could've gone swimming!" Weiss frowned. "There's even a dock right there!"

Pyrrha and Yang looked at each other, serious looks on their faces. They nodded solemnly to each other, confirming that the two girls were up to something.

"You want to go swimming, you say?" Yang smirked, advancing towards Weiss with Pyrrha in tow. "We can help you out."

"What are you doing?" Weiss's eyes widened in fear as Pyrrha grabbed her arms from behind, lifting them up over her head.

"Our job," Yang said sternly, taking her ankles and lifting her off the ground.

Weiss was now a human hammock between Pyrrha and Yang, who acted like the trees, only mobile.

"What job?!" Weiss panicked, not liking what her friends were doing.

"Fun police," The two girls said dutifully in unison as they carried Weiss to the docks. "Making sure everyone is having fun!"

The bystanders quietly laughed at Weiss's situation, knowing full well that the lake was a bit shallow and she would be fine in the end.

The Fun Police now stood at the very edge of the dock, swinging Weiss back and forth.

"One, two, three!"

Weiss was tossed into the lake.

"Do you think she's having fun?" Yang asked her 'partner' Pyrrha.

"Probably, yes," Pyrrha nodded, sharing a high-five with Yang. "Our work here is done."

"... Where did that come from?" Blake asked.

"What, are you wondering Xiao Long we've been waiting for the purrfect moment?" Yang joked. She earned many deadpanned looks. "What?"

"It was spontaneous, really," Pyrrha replied to Blake's question. "Like Yang's puns."

"Do yo think she'll come back?" Jaune worried.

"She could drown," Ren added.

"She'll be fine!" Ruby smiled.

A loud cough interrupted their conversation, coming from the lake, followed by multiple splashes.

"How could you leave me?!" Weiss screamed, crawling on the shore, her bangs plastered over her eyes.

"See? She's fine," Ruby giggled.

"Stop laughing or I'll throw you in too," Weiss threatened in misery.

Ruby immediately went silent, going to help her up so she stayed on her good side.

"Was it fun?" Nora asked, grinning.

"No! Absolutely not!" Weiss growled, wringing the water out of her ponytail with a scowl.

Pyrrha and Yang nodded to each other before approaching the grumpy heiress again.

"I mean..." Weiss forced a cheerful smile. "It was really fun! Thanks, guys!"

The two girls stopped and exchanged smiled, bumping fists in accomplishment.

"Everyone had fun today," Pyrrha said.

"Yep!"

"All thanks to the Fun Police," Ruby smirked.

Yang wrapped her arm around Pyrrha's shoulders and gave a thumbs up, grinning. She blinked in realization with an inaudible gasp.

"Wait..." Yang said darkly, squinting her eyes at Blake. "Blake isn't having fun."

Seven heads turned to Blake, who had a very noticeable frown on her face.

"What?"

"You're not having any fun!" Yang shouted playfully. She turned to Pyrrha. "C'mon, Scarlet!" She started toward Blake, arms outstretched in front of her and flexing her fingers.

"We won't hurt you." Pyrrha laughed, mirroring her partner's actions.

"Wait, I am having fun! It's just how my face is!" Blake panicked, backing away with her hands up.

Yang wasn't one to be fooled by her partner's ruse. "I know you, Blake. You have your normal frown and your 'I'm not amused' frown. I can see through your lies!"

"Damn," Blake cursed, unhappy with the circumstances. If they were planning on tossing her into the lake, she was going down fighting!

"HEY! Guys! Hey!" Nora screamed, pointing to the forest they came to the lake from. "I saw something move over there!"

Pyrrha and Yang stopped in their tracks and looked at each other with wide eyes.

"Was it a Grimm?" Weiss asked calmly, to their surprise.

"It was black and it flew!" Nora began running back into the forest. "Come on!"

"We left our weapons at Beacon!" Ruby whined. "How'll I beat them without Crescent Rose?"

"Hurry up, Rubes! Stop moping." Yang beckoned her over, along with everyone else.

The seven of them followed Nora as fast as they could until she suddenly stopped. Weiss ran into her, then Jaune, Pyrrha, Blake, Yang, Ren and Ruby. They all toppled over like dominoes.

"Why did you stop?!" Weiss screeched. "Now I'm wet and dirty!"

"I lost it..." Nora pouted.

"Great, now we're Nevermore food," Jaune grumped. "I don't wanna die like this! Not because some Nevermore ate me for lunch!"

"How big was the Nevermore?" Blake asked Nora, getting off of Pyrrha.

"Well... pretty small," Nora said.

"So it won't be too much trouble, right?" Weiss asked.

"I sure hope not..." Jaune mumbled.

A small Nevermore? Could it be... Ruby thought with a gasp. Birdie?!

"Birdie, NOOOO!" Ruby shrieked at the sky, dropping back down to her knees and scaring many birds. "Why did ya leave me? I wanted to say sorryyy! I didn't mean to slam into you like that in the initiatioooon!"

"Uh, Ruby-" Jaune started.

"Birdie, WHY?! Tell me why!"

There was no stopping the lightly sobbing Ruby as she pleaded to the skies above, no matter how hard they tried.

"Birdie, answer me!"

"Birdie, please!"

"Birdie, come back!"

"Rubes, get it together!" Yang shook Ruby by the shoulders, effectively halting her shouts. "Birdie heard you, okay? Don't worry."

Ruby sniffled, but nodded in understanding.

"So that Nevermore was 'Birdie'?" Pyrrha asked Ruby.

"Yeah, it looked just like it!" Ruby smiled.

"Don't all Nevermore look the same?" Blake questioned, deadpanning.

Yang looked Blake straight in the eye. "That's one of your 'I'm not amused' frowns. You're not having fun!"

"You're right," Pyrrha agreed, nodding solemnly.

"Are you kidding?!" Blake shrieked, running away with the Fun Police hot on her trail.

"We're in hot purrsuit, Scarlet!" Yang cheered as they chased Blake in circles.

"Yes we are, Goldie!" Pyrrha grinned.

"That's enough of your cat puns, Yang!" Blake growled.

"There is no such thing as enough puns!"

Nora watched the two chasing Blake before joining in. "Don't leave me out of this!"

"Should we stop them?" Jaune asked.

"I will!" Ruby said eagerly, doing a superhero pose before charging at Blake with a burst of speed. She rammed into her, sending her flying in front of them.

"Gotcha!" Yang exclaimed as the three stopped and Blake was falling.

To their surprise, Blake somersaulted forward and sprung back up, carrying on as if nothing happened.

"Huh?!" Nora blurted, shocked. "How do you even...?"

"I dunno how you even," Yang laughed, "but do you know how to odd?"

"Yang, you've said that before." Weiss brought her palm to her forehead.

"I have? Oh." Yang grinned before looking at Blake. "You win this time, but next time, you better be having fun!"

That day, Blake made a promise to herself that she'd try to have fun no matter what around her friends. That was a promise she hoped never to break.


	21. July 30th

Team RWBY and most of JNPR sat at their table during breakfast, eating peacefully. It was then that Nora arrived, setting her tray down and slamming her hands down on the table, determination clear on her face. This startled her friends a bit.

"Guys, I have come to a decision," Nora said solemnly, frowning slightly as she stared at them.

"... What?" Weiss narrowed her eyes, wanting to get back to her food.

"I want..." Nora started, trailing off.

"Want what?" Yang asked impatiently.

"... To see a sloth in person!" Nora grinned, sitting down and bouncing in her seat.

Ren sighed. He definitely didn't have the energy for this today.

"Is... that all you want?" Pyrrha asked, eyeing her suspiciously.

"Yep! I want to see one as soon as possible!"

"You're kidding, right?" Weiss smiled a little, despite the snide remark.

"So you're saying you want to go to the zoo?" Jaune asked his energetic teammate, who nodded vigorously. Jaune sighed. "How much Lien do we have?"

Now he knew how Ren felt.

* * *

"Eeeeee! I'm so excited!" Nora squealed, hopping up and down as they waited in line to enter the zoo.

"I'd be more excited if there were Grimm here," Yang muttered under her breath, moving up a bit with the line.

"You know Grimm can't be held in captivity for very long, right?" Weiss raised an eyebrow. "Why do you want them here anyway? We're dedicating our lives to fight them off."

"I just wanted to make faces at them," Yang said innocently. "Maybe taunt them a little..."

Weiss certainly wouldn't put it past Yang to do that.

"You are so childish."

"Hello," the employee greeted them at the ticket booth. "Eight people?"

The teens nodded.

"160 Lien," he said, smiling as Jaune paid him the exact amount. He decided to make small talk with them. They looked interesting enough, after all. "So, how old are you guys?"

"I'm fifteen and they're seventeen," Ruby replied, pointing to herself.

"Great." The employee smiled again. "Where do you go to school?"

"We all go to Beacon," Pyrrha answered. "Ruby was let in early, skipping two years."

"Really? What do you wield?"

"A High-Caliber Sniper Scythe." Ruby grinned. "My Uncle Qrow taught me. He's a teacher at Signal."

"That sounds amazing!" The man chuckled, impressed. "Now run along. There's a long line up. Bye!"

* * *

"Where are the sloths?" Nora asked no one in particular, whizzing around as her friends casually walked around the zoo.

"Nora," Ren said calmly, getting Nora to stop in front of him and walk backwards.

"Yes, Ren?"

"Stop running around. You'll run into someone," Ren warned her.

"Okay!" Nora grinned before skipping ahead.

The others looked at each other before Yang spoke up. "Ren, I think we need to clear something up," she called him.

"What is it?"

"Well... Uh..." Yang wasn't sure how to say it.

Pyrrha instantly knew what she was talking about. "I think what she wants to say" -she looked at Yang- "is how you deal with Nora so well."

"Yeah. You being, uh, you and everything," Yang struggled to find the correct words, "you would be, er... annoyed by her."

Ren blinked at her before responding. "We've been friends for a long time," he said with a faint smile. "I got used to her. It's not that bad."

"Oh. Okay." Yang nodded, her nervousness dying like a fire. "I'm getting something from the vending machine. Be right back!" She ran off, Lien in her hand.

Once she reached the snack machine, she saw a bag of chips, punched in the code and paid the Lien. Yang frowned when she realized the chip bag didn't move and stuck her arm in the slot to grab it.

"Oh... Oh no."

* * *

"I wonder what's taking her so long," Blake muttered, watching Nora fawn over the sloth exhibit. "Yang's been gone for a while."

"I'm not sure, I'll go check on her," Pyrrha said, worried about her blonde friend, speed walking to where the vending machine was.

"Ooh! I'll name you Billy Bob Joe!" Pyrrha heard Nora gush as she walked past her.

The redhead wandered around in search of the vending machine.

"Yang!" She called. "Yang, where are you?"

"Over here!" Yang's voice shrieked over the volume of the crowds.

Pyrrha got even more worried about her from the shrillness of her call. She sprinted to the source of her voice, pushing past people with 'Sorry!'s and 'Excuse me!'s. When she reached Yang, she couldn't help but giggle.

Yang had her arm stuck in the vending machine.

"Yang, what are you doing?" Pyrrha tried to stifle her giggles.

"I think this hunk of junk is broken." Yang frowned at her friend. "My chips wouldn't come out, so I tried getting it out myself. It's not working."

Pyrrha let her laughter slip from her lips.

"Hey, it's not funny!" Yang pouted.

"Smile!" Pyrrha whipped out her Scroll, ready to take a picture of the unfortunate blonde.

Yang herself couldn't resist a picture of a funny moment. She went with it and made a peace sign with her free hand, sticking her tongue out with a wink. A loud 'clickclick!' was heard as Pyrrha snapped the photo, proud of herself.

"Could you send it to Ruby so they can help me?" Yang asked, getting out of her pose.

"Sure, hold on." Pyrrha grinned, sending the picture to the scythe wielder.

"Wait, you can't free me with your Semblance?" Yang asked wth a frown.

"I would break the machine if I tried that."

"Oh."

"Hello, friends!" A familiar voice called loudly.

Pyrrha looked behind Yang curiously while the blonde turned around as far as she could without twisting her arm.

"Penny?"

There stood Penny, waving vigorously with a wide grin spread across her face.

"Yes, it's me, Penny!" Penny exclaimed. "I missed you a lot, Pyrrha and Yang. How are things?"

"Things aren't so hot right now," Yang grumbled, wiggling the fingers of her trapped hand. "Could you help me?"

"Of course!" Penny nodded, putting her hands on the side of the machine.

She lifted it up and shook it, causing Yang to scream in pain as her arm miraculously slid out of the vending machine. Yang landed on her back, splayed out on the pavement.

"Are you okay now?" Penny asked innocently, placing the vending machine back in its original place.

"Yeah..." Yang's voice cracked.

"It's been a while, Penny." Pyrrha smiled at her as she helped Yang to her feet.

"Why, yes, it has!" Penny exclaimed in surprise, eyes wide. "A very long while."

"Penny?" Ruby's pleasantly surprised voice was heard.

"Ruby?" Penny put her hands on her own cheeks in recognition as she approached her. "All of our friends are here!"

"I know." Ruby nodded. "But why are you at the zoo? I mean, don't you already know about animals?"

"Yes, yes I do." Penny smiled. "I wanted to see my friends, though. I knew you all be here!"

"Wait, how did you kno-" Ruby started, but was cut off by Nora.

"Pennyyyyy!" Nora screamed with joy, rushing over to Penny, hugging her. "I thought I'd never see you again!"

Penny blinked at the display of affection, not used to it in the least. She slowly put her arms around Nora, a warm smile gracing her lips.

"Hello, Nora," she said happily. "Did you see the sloths?"

"Yep! I even named them!" Nora grinned. "Come on, I'll show you!"

Nora ended the hug, taking Penny's wrist and dragging her away. Surprisingly, Penny was not resisting one bit. In fact, she even ran ahead.

"Race you!" Penny exclaimed, getting a head start.

"Hey! Not fair!" Nora roared, clearly not happy with her friend. She sprinted to catch up to her.

Pyrrha smiled at the two. "They seem like best friends and they've only seen each other twice."

"Yeah," Blake said, a hint of wonder in her voice, "they really hit it off."

"We should catch up before they break something," Yang suggested, scratching her head.

"One step ahead of you!" Ruby grinned before disappearing in a trail of rose petals.

* * *

"-and he's Billy Bob Joe!"

They caught up to them just as she finished her explanation of the sloths' names.

"Guys, don't run away like that!" Jaune panted, winded from the run. "We could've lost you guys."

"Actually, I know where you are at all times," Penny said matter-of-factly. "I can sense and identify your Aura if I really wanted to. We couldn't lose you guys!"

"Wait," Yang said suspiciously. "You know where we are at ALL times?" She paled a bit, remembering when she got a carnival flyer from the boys' bathroom at Beacon. What if Penny knew about that? Would she tell the authorities and have her arrested or something? She wasn't sure if you could be put in jail for something so small, but she wasn't taking her chances.

'Do I have to pretend to be a guy now? Does she know about me breaking that rule? Did she check in at that time?' Yang thought, not really listening anymore.

"If I wanted to, I could identify your location. That's not often, though."

"So that's how you knew we were here!" Ruby exclaimed in realization.

"That's creepy though." Weiss frowned. "You never spied on us before, right?"

"Of course not. I know the meaning of privacy." Penny blinked.

'That definitely does NOT show that she knows about privacy,' Jaune thought.

"Well, I gotta go!" Penny called over her shoulder as she walked off.

"Hey! You can't just leave a conversation hanging like that!" Nora tried to call her back to no avail.

"She's gone." Pyrrha stated the obvious.

"Why does she always leave at the worst times?!" Nora wailed.

Yang snapped out of her stupor, noticing Penny's absence. She nudged Ruby. "Hey, Rubes, did you see the picture Pyrrha sent you?"

Ruby's lip twitched, holding back laughter as she responded. "Of course I did, but not everyone saw."

"Saw what?" Nora asked, her sorrows completely washed away.

"Just a picture of Yang Pyrrha sent me." Ruby grinned, taking out her Scroll. "Wanna see it?"

"Yeah!"

Ruby showed them all the picture of her sister and the vending machine, the blonde surprisingly not against it.

"Yang." Blake frowned at her partner. "What were you doing?"

"Well," Yang grinned as she puffed out her chest proudly, "I didn't get my chips, so I had to reach in to get them."

"Then why are you looking so happy about it?" Weiss questioned. "In the picture and right now?"

"Not everyone can say they got their arm stuck in a vending machine, you know." Yang laughed.

"Yeah," Nora agreed with a smile. "Not everyone can say they'd squatted while wrapped in toilet paper either!"

"HEY!" Weiss shouted, offended. "That's it!"

Weiss growled and put 2 Lien in a nearby vending machine. She punched in the number and a chip bag came out. She picked it up and chucked it in Nora's face.

"This'll keep you quiet about it," Weiss grumbled, watching he redhead munch on the snack.

Yang blinked when a troubling thought hit her. She'd lost her milkshake before, and now it was her chips. The very same kind she'd wanted was the one Nora was eating. That vending machine stole her money, and it made her angry. For the rest of the time they spent at the zoo, she sent evil looks to every vending machine that crossed her path.

Never trust a vending machine.


	22. July 31st

"Okay. Sisters! Friends! Weiss." Ruby stood up at the breakfast table.

"Hey!" Weiss exclaimed, greatly offended.

"Four score and seven minutes ago, I had a dream," Ruby announced, "where it was the last day of summer vacation. I propose we go into town on this fine day. What do you think?"

Her friends, sister and Weiss gave her a brief applause.

"That was amazing." Yang grinned.

"Was that spontaneous, or did you plan that?" Weiss joked.

"Planned it." Ruby grinned. "So, are we going to town or what?"

* * *

"Where are we going?" Jaune asked Pyrrha as they walked downtown together.

"You'll see." Pyrrha grinned.

"Okay." Jaune sighed.

There was a short silence between the two.

"We're here!" Pyrrha smiled, stopping in front of a small craft store.

Jaune stared at the building in confusion, blinking multiple times. For some reason, his partner and a craft store didn't seem to mix. "What are we doing at a craft store?"

"Come on!" Pyrrha ignored him, grabbing his wrist and hauling him inside.

"Ah, Pyrrha!" An employee smiled at her with a friendly wave. "It's been a while. Who's this?"

"Christie, this is Jaune," Pyrrha introduced them. "Jaune, this is Christie. I'm a regular here, so don't freak out if someone says hi to us, okay, Jaune?"

Jaune was slightly taken aback. First she brings him to a crafts store, then she claims to be a regular? This was Pyrrha Nikos, fighting all-star and Pumpkin Pete's mascot?

"Nice to meet you." Jaune shook Christie's hand.

"What do you even buy here?" Jaune turned to Pyrrha.

"Yarn."

"Yarn?"

"For knitting, obviously." Pyrrha laughed. "You never noticed the hats and scarves piling in the closet? Sweaters or booties?"

Jaune's mind almost went in the wrong direction when she said "booties".

"No." He shook his head, feeling a tad ashamed. "What do you even do with them?"

"I donate most of them to Atlas." Pyrrha smiled, proud of herself. "It gets cold there and I love knitting for others. I could make you something if you want."

"Sure! Uh..." Jaune was all for it, but didn't know what he wanted or needed.

"A new onesie?"

"How did you know I needed a new one?"

"..." Pyrrha blushed faintly. "I'll just be getting what I need. You... can look around." She walked away from him, slightly embarrassed.

The truth was that she didn't know beforehand, but after that exchange she must've sounded creepy for saying something like that. Oh well, at least she got to make him a onesie. Who knows, maybe it could be a Christmas present.

Pyrrha was so caught up in those thoughts, she wasn't watching where she was going. She ran into someone, stumbling back a bit.

"Sorry," Pyrrha immediately apologized.

"Don't worry, Pyrrha Nikos," a silky voice said to her. "Your name is Pyrrha, right?"

The redhead got a good look at her. Black hair on one side, yellow-orange eyes, dark red dress. It had to be her. She'd seen her at this store before but never learned her name. It wasn't a mystery how the woman knew her name, though. She was a cereal mascot.

"Yes, it's me." Pyrrha nodded. She noticed her starting to walk away. "Wait! I don't even know your name. Are you a regular here too?"

The woman looked back at her with a small smirk. "Why yes, I am. I'm Cinder Fall. I'll be seeing you later."

* * *

"Come on, Ruby! Ruby, come on!" Nora called Ruby as she bounced ahead of her.

"I don't even know where we're going!" Ruby called back, not wanting to rush. After all, who wants to rush on the last day of vacation? She wanted to hang out with Nora in town, not run a marathon.

"You'll know when... we..." Nora suddenly stopped skipping, staring into the distance.

"What is it?" Ruby asked when she caught up to her.

A cheery tune was approaching. When it came closer, they realized it was an ice cream truck.

"It's the ice cream truck!" The two were squealing, hunting for any Lien they were carrying.

Nora flagged it down like a tourist in need of a taxi.

"Hello!" Ruby and Nora beamed at the ice cream man.

"Hello." He smiled, leaning over a bit. "What'll you be having?"

"Strawberry double-scoop." Ruby smiled back.

"What is there?" Nora asked.

"The menu's next to the window," the ice cream man said.

Nora turned her head to look at the selection. Chocolate, vanilla, chocolate and vanilla, neapolitan, smiley face popsicle...

There was a light tap on her back, making her turn around. There was a girl who looked suspiciously like neapolitan.

"Yeah?" Nora blinked, looking down at her.

"I think she wants you to hurry up." Ruby patted the head of pink, brown and white hair. "Don't worry, we won't take too long!" She blinked at her. "Hey, wait a second..."

"Smiley face popsicle!" Nora blurted.

They handed him the Lien and got their ice cream. When they walked away, Ruby looked back at the girl. Her eyes, one pink and one brown, stared back at her. Ruby didn't notice the lamppost in her way until it was too late.

_Splat_.

The side of her face smushed against it, her focus shifting from the ice cream girl to the pain in her cheek.

"Ow!" Ruby groaned. Nora turned to look at her.

"Ruby!" She gasped, dropping her already-finished popsicle. "Your ice cream!"

"What?" Ruby rubbed her stinging cheek before looking down at her feet. A pink mess was in front of her right foot, having almost fallen on her boot.

She lost her ice cream because of that familiar girl. Ruby's eyebrows scrunched together and she frowned, clearly unhappy. Now she knew how Yang felt when she lost her milkshake a few days before.

"Ruby... Come on." Nora took her wrist, dragging her forward. "We're going to Candy World."

All the anger she had toward the girl and her fallen ice cream double-scoop melted away.

"Candy World?"

"Yeah! We're here!"

Ruby looked up at the sign on the building that said 'Candy World' in bright red letters. She tried hard to muffle her ear-blistering squeals, failing miserably. This had to be one of her favourite stores in Vale.

"I have 50 Lien left." Nora grinned doing a little dance. "Let that sink in..."

"But everything is around fifty cents..." Ruby paused before gasping loudly. "Which means..."

"We can buy a hundred candies!" The two chorused, squealing even louder.

"Comeoncomeoncomeon!" Ruby was the one urging Nora inside. The energy balls skipped into Candy World together.

It was a truly spectacular place, especially to Ruby and Nora. Dispensers stocked with all types of candy lined the walls and a big jar filled with sugar sticks sat in the middle of the store surrounded by jellybean jars of differing sizes.

"Oh God." Ruby clapped her hands excitedly, a grin lighting up her face.

"You take one side I take the other!" Nora exclaimed boisterously before being shushed by a mother with a baby.

"Sorry," Ruby whispered before scampering off to the right.

* * *

Blake and Ren's store of choice was the bookstore, which they were silently strolling to, few words exchanged.

"Ren," Blake looked at him, "what kind of books do you like?"

"Adventures, mostly mysteries," Ren replied. "You?"

Blake blushed heavily, looking in all directions. She knew he knew, he had to be messing with her.

"Uh, er, well..." Blake tried frantically hiding her red face. "Y-you already, um..."

Ren chuckled. "I was joking, Blake. I already know."

Blake frowned at him, blushing deeper. He just smirked at her.

_Not again! _Blake thought as the bookstore came into view.

Tuckson's Book Trade had been her favourite store ever since she was little. It had also been where she'd bought Ninjas of Love.

"Huh? The door's locked." Blake tried opening the front door.

"I heard this place closed down," Ren informed her.

"What? Why?" Blake looked at him in shock.

"Nobody really knows why." Ren shrugged.

"We'll just go somewhere else." Blake sighed in defeat, letting go of the doorknob. She slumped her shoulders and walked past Tuckson's Book Trade.

Ren blinked before jogging to catch up to her. "Are you okay?"

"Not really." Blake frowned. "I really wanted to get e second edition of... the book."

"You can still get it," Ren encouraged her, taking her wrist and walking faster. "I know just the place."

_How would Ren know a place? _Blake wondered.

* * *

"Yang, just tell me where we're going!" Weiss growled, unhappy with the blonde. She had a blindfold over her eyes and was being urged to go to an unknown location, of course she was fuming.

"You'll know when we get there!" Yang said in a sing-song voice, grinning.

"Stop going so fast, I'm gonna trip!" Weiss warned her friend, nearly tripping over her own feet.

_She's going to love this place! _Yang thought triumphantly, smirking to herself as she pushed Weiss forward.

"We're here!" Yang stopped the two of them, untying Weiss's blindfold.

Weiss opened her eyes, widening them when she saw the display in the window. There were small cats in their cages, a few pawing at the window as if to say, "take me home".

"A pet store?" Weiss gasped, a smile slowly spreading across her face. She turned to Yang, who's hands were on her hips. "How did you know I liked animals?"

"Are you serious?" Yang laughed. "How could I forget your reaction to Zwei? You acted like he was your own dog."

Weiss blushed faintly and was at a loss for words. Her mouth opened and closed a few times and she spluttered a little before giving up.

"Stop gawking, Weiss." Yang shook her head, grabbing the heiress's arm. "Let's go look at some pets!"

Weiss was promptly dragged into the pet store without resistance.

"What do you want to look at first?" Yang asked, looking around.

"The puppies," Weiss said, quickly walking to the baby canines.

Yang smiled, following the heiress to the section of the store with the puppies. She almost wanted to laugh at Weiss's reaction to them and would most definitely joke about it in the future.

"Aww! Look at this one!" Weiss cooed, pointing at a juvenile husky, eyes bright. "Isn't he so cute?" She crouched down, watching the dog push a toy with its nose.

"Weiss, you know we can't take any animals home, right?" Yang reminded her, a playful tone in her voice.

"Oh, right." Weiss frowned sadly, a hint of disappointment in her features.

_Nope, definitely not forgetting this_, Yang thought with a chuckle.

* * *

The eight friends met up when they boarded their airship to go back to Beacon. They were gathered in a circle chatting about their experiences downtown.

"You, Pyrrha Nikos, all-star champion and cereal mascot," Weiss scoffed in disbelief, "knit? Where do you find time between school and everything else in your celebrity life?"

"I set aside time for it. It's a hobby, after all." Pyrrha smiled, no shame in her voice. "Like Blake's love for books."

This drew attention to the Faunus, who was happily reading the second edition of Ninjas of Love. Blake's head snapped up, closing her book with a finger marking the page. "Why are you looking at me?"

"I guess you're right." Weiss nodded at Pyrrha, ignoring Blake. She placed a hand on her chest, looking up proudly. "I have my hobbies, too."

"I've never seen you do much outside of school except for studying." Jaune blinked.

"Nonsense! I do other things."

"Like what?"

"I paint my nails, talk about cute boys and try on clothes, of course!"

"But when we started at Beacon you said..." Ruby trailed off after noticing Weiss's "that's enough" look. "So, uh... What did you do, Yang?" She nervously changed the subject.

"Oh, you should've seen Weiss at the pet store." Yang grinned. "She was going gaga over the puppies."

"I was not!" Weiss crossed her arms with a huff, turning away.

"Yes you were, dont deny it!" Yang teased her with a nudge. "You had the most adorable pout when I told you we could've take any pets home."

"I wasn't pouting. I'm not a child." Weiss frowned.

"We went to the candy store and got ice cream!" Nora exclaimed, waving around her shopping bag. "We got a hundred candies! You guys can have some too, if you want."

Yang completely forgot about her little "argument" with Weiss and immediately pounced on Nora, eagerly taking some caramels from the bag. When everyone got their share of candy, Jaune noticed the title of Blake's book.

_Hang on! _He thought suspiciously, narrowing his eyes._ Ninjas of Love 2? That means Ren showed her the place..._

"Well, guys," Ruby started, "it's been a fun two weeks, right? We did lots of stuff!"

"I personally liked playing laser tag the most," Weiss said, voice muffled from her blueberry lollipop.

"That's because Neptune was your partner, right?" Yang joked.

"Hey!"


	23. September 14

Ruby woke up at 7:30 that morning. She took off her Beowulf sleeping mask, yawned and stretched.

"Morning, guys..." Ruby said groggily, wiping her eyes as she scanned the room. "Guys?"

Her teammates were nowhere to be found. Surprisingly, their beds were made and looked untouched as if they were never used before. Normally, at least Yang's pillow was on the other side of the bed and her blankets hanging over the side.

_Yang actually made her bed? _Ruby wondered, wrinkling her nose. If Yang made her bed, there was definitely a special occasion.

Ruby slid off her bed and got dressed in her usual clothes. From the corner of her eye, she noticed a small sticky note sitting on the bookshelf. She headed over to it, picking it up.

_Gone Fishing_

_From Yang, Weiss and Blake_

It was very confusing, but she paid it no mind. It was clearly written by Yang, so she didn't really worry about that.

_Maybe I could hang out with JNPR for a while._.. Ruby sighed, setting the note down. She sauntered to the door, opening it with a frown. _Did they leave me for a reason_?

"Jaune?" Ruby called, knocking on JNPR's door. "Pyrrha? Hello?"

Nora was the one to answer the door. "Hello! What brings you here?"

"Well, my team is somewhere and I don't know where..." Ruby mumbled before looking up. "So I thought we could maybe... hang out for a bit?"

"Nope! We're busy!" Nora beamed, about to slam the door shut when Ruby caught it.

"At least let me ask you a question," Ruby said in desperation.

"Nope! We're doing something top secret, so you can't see!"

"Aww..." Ruby pouted. "I won't tell anyone."

"Nope!"

"Okay, okay, but do you know where my team is?"

"Sorry, we can't help you with that." Nora slammed the door in her face, her face still brighter than the sun.

Ruby's eyes widened before she wilted. _What's with everyone today? Am I not their friend anymore? Why does it have to be today of all days?_ She walked away from JNPR's dorm and went back to her own. She dully picked up a weapons magazine and climbed onto her bed to read it.

This was usually her go-to when it came to sadness so she could marvel at the endless weapon combinations, but she wasn't sure if war hammer/cannon hybrids and many others would help with her unease. When Ruby realized that she was frowning deeper with every page turn, she decided to put on her head phones and listen to music.

What was going on?

* * *

"Blake, really?" Yang groaned as she wiped another drop of cookie batter off her cheek.

"Sorry, I'm just not good at mixing," Blake apologized as she used an electric mixer.

"At least you're not making the icing," Weiss complained, trying to make the mixture presentable.

The three girls were given special permission to use the staff kitchen and wore aprons and puffy chef hats.

"That doesn't look right..." Yang mused, peeking over Blake's shoulder to check on the batter. "I think you missed something."

"What did I miss?"

"Well, did you put in the eggs?" Yang asked with a laugh in her voice.

Blake stopped mixing, her face going blank and pale. She mentally beat herself up over forgetting one of the most important ingredients. _You forgot the_ eggs._ The first thing on the list. Goodness, how could you miss something as obvious as that? Stupid, stupid, stupid... _

"No." Blake finally spoke.

"Get on it! You need three." Yang grinned at her before going on another side of the kitchen island and leaning on it.

"What exactly are you doing, Yang?" Weiss raised an eyebrow, putting the icing in a piper.

"Supervising, of course." Yang scoffed. "If I wasn't, we'd have a cookie with no eggs."

Weiss looked around the kitchen before looking back at Yang. "I thought you were supposed to get the strawberries. Where are they?"

Yang blinked at her and scratched her head. "Strawberries? I thought I..."

"You never bought them?!" Weiss exclaimed incredulously, nearly squeezing all the icing out of her piper.

"Yang, you said you'd get them last night," Blake reminded her.

"I forgot. Besides, shouldn't you've reminded me this morning?"

"We thought you bought them already!" Blake and Weiss exclaimed in unison, the two glaring at her.

"S-s-sorry..." Yang pressed her index fingers together, looking down in shame. She'd let her teammates down, and she had to set things right.

"Go get those strawberries right now!"

"Okay, okay! You're scaring me!" Yang tore off her apron and puffy hat and ran out the door.

Weiss sighed. "I'm not waiting for her, we have to call them now." She pulled out her Scroll, after washing her hands, of course, and called Nora.

"Hello, Weiss! O' great party planner!" Nora's image grinned on her Scroll.

"How is your end holding up?" Weiss asked, getting right to business.

"Jaune and Pyrrha have entered the dorm," Nora replied happily. "I love that 'get in the dorm through the window' idea! They didn't get caught, after all! Well, of course they didn't, because they were all sneaky like ninja assassins. And that was all part of the plan, too. The 'not getting caught and interrogated by Ruby' thing. All I'm saying is that I love this!

"Maybe we should do this for my birthday, too! Oh, but don't tell me, I want it to be a surprise! I don't want to know about it at all! Maybe I could remind you about that, I'd better put it on a sticky-"

"Nora, we understand." Weiss interrupted her rambling. "Well, it was great checking in, see you later." She hung up.

"I wonder what they got for Ruby," Blake said thoughtfully.

"We'll see soon enough." Weiss smiled. "I hope Yang comes back soon, though. We need those strawberries."

"I'm sure she will." Blake nodded. "She loves Ruby and wants her to have a happy birthday."

Weiss puffed her cheeks. "I'm the one that planned all this so she gets one. I don't hear a thank you."

"The only thank you you'll get is from the birthday girl herself."

* * *

"Strawberries, strawberries, strawberries..." Yang mused as she rode Bumblebee to the supermarket. Upon reaching her destination, she parked her motorcycle and ran inside the store.

Yang was so focused on getting strawberries that she failed to notice a short woman in her path.

"Oof!" Yang grunted, stumbling back.

The other woman glanced up at her from her position on the floor. Yang looked down at her, instantly recognizing her. She couldn't forget that smug look no matter how hard she tried.

"Neo?!" Yang exclaimed in shock.

The girl blinked at her, smirk growing. Neo stood up, umbrella in one hand and chocolate sauce in the other, and abruptly walked away.

"H-hey! I demand a rematch!" Yang called to Neo. Her words fell upon deaf ears. She shook her fist, but remembered what she came to the supermarket for.

Strawberries.

"Strawberries, strawberries, strawberries..."

* * *

Nora and Ren stared at the gifts Jaune and Pyrrha had bought for Ruby.

"I don't know about the socks..." Ren said, picking up a pair.

"Come on, there's roses on them!" Jaune defended. "Her last name is Rose! It's fitting."

"What else did you get?" Nora asked Pyrrha.

"A few more things." Pyrrha smiled. "You'll see the rest when we watch Ruby open them, that's why they're in bags."

"I'm still not sure about these socks," Ren muttered.

"Who doesn't want socks for their birthday?" Jaune spluttered. "Besides, if she doesn't like the socks, I got her a custom 'Team Jaune' shirt. See?"

Jaune pulled a red T-shirt with his face on it and "Team Jaune" under the picture out of a bag. His teammates faces went blank, even Nora's was devoid of emotion.

"Jaune, are you crazy?!" Nora shouted, shaking him.

"No. Just... no." Ren pinched the bridge of his nose.

"You got that behind my back?" Pyrrha clenched her fists. "How much was it?"

"... Onehundredfiftyfive," Jaune said hastily.

"What?!" Pyrrha boomed. "I said 50 max per gift! Now we went over our budget..."

* * *

Ruby wandered through the halls of Beacon, bored out of her wits. She'd re-read every weapon magazine at least seven times and practically memorized each function and transformation.

"There's nothing to do..." Ruby whined to no one in particular. "Where is everybody?"

She suddenly ran into someone and looked up to see Ozpin.

"S-sorry Professor Ozpin!" Ruby apologized.

"Don't apologize, it's your birthday, after all." Ozpin paused. "Happy birthday."

"At least someone remembered..." Ruby muttered. "Hey, wait! Is there at least a job you need me to do?"

Ozpin didn't stop walking away. "No, there isn't." He smirked to himself. He knew of WBY and JNPR's plan and definitely didn't want to spoil the surprise.

"Ozpin!" Ruby called after him.

"I'm sorry, but I'm very busy today," he said before departing.

Ruby sighed in defeat. Why was everyone so busy?

From the corner of her eye, she saw a mane of blonde hair, instantly recognizing the owner.

"Yang! You're here!" Ruby grinned, sauntering to her side. "Where're Blake and Weiss?"

"Oh, uh, they're, uh..." Yang stammered, turning her body so Ruby didn't see the strawberries. "They're a bit behind me, see... those two are a little, you know, slow..."

"Where were you guys?"

"Pfft, didn't you read the note?" Yang asked nervously. "We were gone fishing, of course. Where else would we possibly be if we weren't fishing? Haha..." She looked around curiously before staring over Ruby's shoulder. Her eyes widened. "Look over there, Ruby! Cookies are on sale!"

"Where?!" Ruby exclaimed, turning around. Yang sprinted off while her back was turned.

_Whew, she fell for it_.

* * *

Weiss and Blake waited impatiently for Yang in the kitchen. The cookie-cake was already finished and 'Happy Birthday, Ruby!' was written in icing, all they needed were the strawberries.

"You owe me 20 Lien now, by the way." Blake smirked at her teammate.

"It not my fault she's not punctual." Weiss huffed, crossing her arms and turning her nose up. "We shouldn't have made that stupid bet anyway. Take it back."

"Nope."

"Why not? Take it back!"

"What's a measly 20 Lien to you, heiress of the Schnee Dust Company?" Blake's smirk grew as she held out her hand. "Pay up. She's late."

Weiss pouted. "I'll do it later."

"You better."

"I'm back!"

The two looked over at the door where their blonde teammate stood, panting, with the strawberries.

"Almost got caught," Yang said, closing the door and putting the fruit on the counter.

"Come on, we gotta get to the dorm!" Weiss grabbed the cookie-cakes. "JNPR must be waiting for us!" With that, she rushed out of the kitchen.

Yang looked at Blake. "What's with her?"

"She lost a bet." Blake took the fruit and left the room with the blonde.

"What were you betting on...?"

"Whether or not you'd make it back before the cookie was completely done."

Yang took a moment to process her words before blinking in surprise. "Don't bet on me like that!"

"Why not?" Blake said playfully.

"It's, uh... disrespectful!" Yang spluttered. "Y-you shouldn't bet on your friends like that!"

Blake rolled her eyes.

It didn't take long for them to reach the RWBY dorm. In fact, they made it there before Ruby shuffled dejectedly into it.

As she closed the door, she looked up and saw her friends and sister in the room with her.

"SURPRISE!" They shouted enthusiastically.

Ruby's face brightened with joy. "Guys! Thank you so much!" She hugged each of them with a goofy grin. "I see you brought presents!"

"Open mine first!" Pyrrha raised her hand.

Ruby picked up a box that said 'To Pyrrha, from Ruby' on it. She looked up at her red-haired friend in confusion.

"The company got the names mixed up..." Pyrrha scratched the back of her neck.

Ruby returned her attention to the box, opening it delicately. Her face lit up when she saw her favourite weapons magazine.

"Look at the date," Pyrrha advised.

Ruby checked the dates of every magazine to find that all 12 were from the next year.

"How did you manage this?" Ruby grinned at her. "They're all from next year! Tell us your secret!"

"Well... I pulled some strings."

"And your influence as a cereal mascot," Weiss muttered under her breath.

"No complaints, Ice Queen." Nora elbowed Weiss. "It's your partner's birthday!" She turned to Ruby. "Open ours next."

Ruby picked up Ren and Nora's gift and opened the box to find a state-of-the-art weapon cleaning kit.

"Thanks, guys! Ooh, what's this?" She opened Jaune's gift.

Ruby lifted the shirt and looked it over, a hint of disappointment on her face.

"What is it, sis?" Yang asked.

Her sister had no words when she showed them the Team Jaune T-shirt. Every one of them, except for Yang, brought their hands over their eyes.

"Jaune! What the hell are you doing?!" Yang fumed, shaking him by the shoulders. "Don't advertise yourself on a shirt like that!"

"T-there's socks there t-too!" Jaune tried to defend himself.

"Is your face all over them?"

"No!"

Yang stopped shaking him and looked at Ruby with a nod. "You are free to look at the socks, young grasshopper."

Ruby didn't really understand what she meant by "young grasshopper" but it was safe to say that she loved the socks.

"See? Socks are a good idea." Jaune stuck his tongue out at Ren.

_I still don't see who'd want socks for their birthday_, Ren thought.

"Hey, what about you guys?" Ruby asked her team. "Where're your gifts?"

"We made you a cookie-cake." Blake smiled, presenting the treat to her. "There's strawberries too."

"Thanks! But..." Ruby trailed off, taking the cookie, "how do I eat it?"

"Just take a big bite!" Yang urged her.

Ruby took a large bite and chewed, processing the taste. In truth, she would have gagged if her friends weren't there. It was the most disgusting cookie she'd ever tasted.

"How was it?" Weiss asked.

"Salty..." Ruby mumbled.

Pyrrha's head turned to Blake. "You messed up the cookie? Did you mistake the salt for sugar or something?"

Blake paled.

"Don't worry about the taste, Rubes! Have some strawberries instead!" Yang offered her a container of the red fruit.

"Thanks." Ruby handed her the large cookie and took the strawberries, shovelling them into her mouth. "Thanks for the gifts too, you guys! You're all great friends."

"No problem." Jaune grinned. "At least now, you're part of Team Jaune!"

"NO SHE'S NOT!" Yang shouted.


	24. October 31 (Part 1 of 2)

"It's been three hours now," Weiss said impatiently. She looked out the window, wondering where Yang could possibly be.

Her blonde teammate had left to get her team Hallowe'en costumes for the big party at Beacon that night. Ruby, Blake and Weiss had waited very patiently for her return but were worried.

She's probably getting us the perfect costumes!" Ruby grinned.

"But we're competing for best costumes! JNPR probably already has theirs and time's almost up!" Weiss sighed.

"It's a friendly competition between us," Blake pointed out. "We're not going to be humiliated in front of the whole school, just JNPR."

"We have ten minutes until we have to show them our costumes!"

"I'm back!" Yang burst into the dorm, three costumes in hand.

"Yang, don't you think yours is kind of..." Blake trailed off.

Yang was already wearing her own costume. It was a bit revealing, to say the least. She wore orange ankle-strap heels, earrings and choker and a white sailor suit with an orange skirt. The hands holding the costumes were covered by long white gloves with orange elbow fittings. On her head was a red bow.

"Yeah, the skirt's pretty short," Weiss added. "It barely covers your underwear."

"I'm Sailor Venus! It's supposed to look this way," Yang defended. "Besides, it's hardly different from my shorts."

"You have a point," Weiss grumbled.

"What costumes did you get us?" Ruby asked eagerly, changing the subject.

"Let's see, here..." Yang placed them on Weiss's bed. "Ruby, you are..." -she held up a mostly black costume with a black scythe prop attached to it- "Dead Master! Here you go, change into it!" Yang gave her sister the outfit and Ruby scurried to the bathroom.

She turned to Weiss with a white costume. "This is yours, Snow Angel."

"Don't call me that."

"No, seriously, your costume is a snow angel." Yang smiled, biting back a laugh.

The look on Weiss's face was definitely worth picking this costume. Yang had been stumped, forced to decide between Snow Angel and Satsuki Kiryuin, and that expression was her reason for picking Snow Angel.

"I'll get you for this." Weiss frowned and took the costume.

"And you, Blake, get the ultimate costume," Yang smirked as she handed Blake her outfit.

"No."

"What?" Yang laughed. "What's wrong with it?"

"No."

"Please?"

"No."

In Blake's hands was a maid costume. She was clearly not amused.

"... That's your 'I'm not amused' frown. Come on, there was nothing left that would suit you." Yang grinned.

"THIS DOES NOT SUIT ME!" Blake blasted, throwing the embarrassing outfit back in Yang's face. She crossed her arms and turned away with a huff. "I'm not wearing it."

"Blake, you're wearing it, there's nothing else," Weiss piped up.

"Ta-da!" Ruby exclaimed, coming out of the bathroom.

She wore a black thigh-high long sleeve dress with a ruffled edge and a white bow on the waist. Ruby also had black leggings with green ribbons on the edges, which were also ruffled, and black and green pumps. In addition, there was a short, thin veil on her head and tall, curved green horns. On her back were neon green zig-zag wings.

"Whaddaya think?" Ruby asked, twirling her black scythe as if it were Crescent Rose.

"You look badass," was all Yang could say as she stared in awe.

"Far better than my costume," Blake grumped. "I'm a maid!"

"I'm changing next," Weiss declared, marching into the en suite.

When she came out, she wore a sparkly white dress with a petticoat underneath and had wings of the same colour.

"This is so plain," Weiss complained. "Was there nothing else?"

"Nope, nothing else caught my eye," Yang lied. She turned to Blake. "Come on, Blake. Put it on."

Blake immediately sulked her way to the bathroom.

"Yang, why is she a maid?" Ruby asked her sister.

"Eh." Yang shrugged.

"I hate you, Yang," Blake glared at Yang when she came back in, "with all my heart and soul."

"Come in, it's not that bad." Yang grinned. "You look nice!"

A sharp knock on their door took them all by surprise.

"It's JNPR! Are you ready?" Pyrrha's voice asked from the other side.

Yang sprinted to the door and threw it open. "Hey! Yeah, we are. Come in!"

Team JNPR entered the dorm and sat on Ruby and Weiss's beds. RWBY sat on Blake and Yang's beds as well.

"We shall see who has the best costume on both teams," Yang announced. "Evaluation begins... now!"

Ren was looking straight at Blake when he was brutally reminded of a certain book. All those months ago, he had read a single paragraph of Ninjas of Love and a revealing maid outfit was a glaringly obvious giveaway to what was going on. Blake's wasn't really skimpy, but the look of shame on her crimson face showed her discomfort. He gave her a small smile, which made her blush harder.

"Jaune, what in the name of Remnant are you wearing?" Weiss scoffed in disgust.

"I am Ladies' Man! A superhero, obviously," Jaune said smugly.

The blond wore a Superman-like outfit that was bright yellow and green with a high heel on his chest with the initials "LadMan" on it.

"I'm pretty sure you're Lad Man," Yang said.

"I'm Ladies' Man! The shoe gives it away."

"And you, Pyrrha?" Weiss asked.

"Erza Scarlet," Pyrrha said.

Her costume was fairly simple. What looked like bandages were wrapped around her breasts and she wore red pants with yellow flames on the bottom.

"Where are your shoes?" Ruby asked, wondering if her feet were frozen.

"I'll put them on later." Pyrrha shrugged.

"I'm the Queen of Hearts!" Nora exclaimed happily.

Nora wore a black and red gown with black and yellow stripes on a section of the skirt. To top it off, she wore gold earrings and a crown on her head.

"I'm Queen and Ren's a vampire," Nora continued. "I'm pretty sure I have the best costume, though."

"Who are you guys?" Jaune asked team RWBY.

"I'm Dead Master, Yang's Sailor Venus, Weiss is a snow angel and Blake's a... y'know..." Ruby trailed off.

Jaune glances at Weiss suggestively. "Well then, Snow Angel." He leapt off Ruby's bed and dragged Weiss out of the dorm. "This costume thing can wait. Let's get to that Hallowe'en party. You're my date tonight!"

"What?!" Weiss cried from down the hall.

"You need to have a date!"

The remaining teens in the dorm froze. Except for Nora and Ruby, that is. They flew out the door, not caring about getting a date, but the candy that awaited them.

"Date...?" Pyrrha mumbled.

"I got your back, Fun Police Partner!" Yang lifted Pyrrha bridal style. "Fear not! In the name of Love, I will be your date. Fun shall be ours. Let's fly!" Yang ran out the dorm.

Ren and Blake looked at each other.

"Well..." Ren stood and went to Blake, holding out his hand. The Faunus took it with a blush and they left together.

Jaune and Weiss were linking arms as they entered, earning looks of surprise and many whispers.

"Is the heiress of the Schnee Dust Company with Arc boy?"

"Talk about low standards."

"Lucky Jaune."

Weiss sighed at their comments, looking at Jaune to see his reaction. Her blond date was grinning stupidly, which was to be expected.

"Hey, Arc!" A familiar voice called.

Jaune looked around in confusion until a certain second-year student stood in front of him. She lowered her sunglasses and stared at Weiss before pushing them back up.

"Looks like you found a girl." Coco smirked.

"Coco? Where's your costume?" Weiss asked. "Who is he?"

"Jaune, Weiss, this is Fox, my partner, teammate and date." Coco introduced them. "I don't think I need a costume since I obviously look like a model!" She laughed. "Why are you Lad Man anyway?"

"It's Ladies' Man!" Jaune groaned. "Can't you tell by the shoe?"

"Well, Foxy here's blind, so he can't actually see it," Coco said. "That's why I got him a werewolf costume myself."

"Huh?' Jaune got in Fox's face and stared him down. "How? Why?"

"Don't do that. Seriously," Fox said, taking a step back.

"Gosh, Jaune, you can't just ask someone why they're blind." Weiss frowned.

"There you are, guys!" Yang ran over to the group.

Coco looked at Yang and Pyrrha with a smile. "Hey."

"I didn't know you had a boyfriend." Yang smirked.

"He's not my boyfriend, but where're the rest of you guys?" Coco changed the subject. "You know, the other half."

"Ruby and Nora are pigging out on candy." Pyrrha shrugged. "Not sure about Blake and Ren. They might be coming."

"Right here."

They turned to Blake and Ren, who were approaching. Coco gawked at the Faunus and all her maid glory.

"What. What. Whaaa..." Coco blinked vigorously. "Maid...?"

"Y-Yang chose it." Blake blushed in embarrassment, starting to cower behind Ren.

"No regrets!" Yang said proudly, puffing her chest out.

She received many disbelieving stares. Surely she wasn't serious...

"I think you should, actually." Fox put in his two cents. "She seems pretty embarrassed."

Yang sighed. "Yeah, you're right, but that's all there was in her size. I'm serious. She can't just go costumeless like that."

"Coco! Fox! C'mere!" Velvet called from across the room.

"Whelp, we gotta go. See you later!" Coco dragged Fox away.

"So, how's the party for you guys?" Jaune asked.

"I've been getting weird looks all night," Blake said unhappily.

"We're doing great!" Nora and Ruby joined them, hopping on the spot.

Pyrrha gave them both a once-over. "I think that's enough candy for the night..."

Nora's face darkened and she stood still as a statue. "There's none left."

"You ate all the candy?!" Yang clenched her fists. "If there's no candy, there's no reason to be here."

Her friends looked at her in confusion.

"Hallowe'en is about candy and haunted houses," Yang continued. "If candy is absent, we must resort to a haunted house."

"Why would I ever-"

Weiss was cut off by a loud shriek. "Who took the candy?!"

There was clearly a candy lover in that room who didn't go by Nora, Ruby or Yang. This meant trouble. One thing led to another and most of the students in the room were after Nora and Ruby.

"I saw them eating the candy." Someone pointed accusingly at them.

"We've been caught." Ruby blinked.

"W-what are you waiting for?" Nora exclaimed, grabbing Ruby's wrist. "Run, guys!"

The eight of them ran out of the room as fast as they could.

"This is why my skirt's so short!" Yang said to Nora and Weiss, who'd had to pick up their skirts to run.

Ruby, being unskilled with heels, tripped and fell flat on her face. She looked back before looking up at her friends. "Go on without meeee!"

"Fear not, Ladies' Man is here!" Jaune ran back to Ruby, picked her up and went back to their friends.

"To the dorm, come on!" Blake exclaimed, stopping to open the door and running inside. The rest of them piled inside and she closed the door, sliding down it in exhaustion. "That was close."

"We can't... stay here... forever." Pyrrha panted.

"She's right," Nora said, not even tired, "and the only way out is the window."

"Do you want to die?" Weiss exclaimed.

"Come out, thieves!" Came a shout.

"Use your glyphs and lead us somewhere, anywhere!" Ruby shook her partner's shoulders.

Weiss sure as Hell didn't want to die, so she made stairs with her glyphs just outside the window. She opened it and bowed. "Whoever wants to go first."


End file.
